Euthanasia! your opinions needed please

Published

  1. Euthanasia/assisted suicide

    • 13
      Are you against it?
    • 59
      Are you for it?
    • 4
      Or are you undecided?

76 members have participated

Hi there I am a 3rd year nursing student. Our class at university have been asked to compile a debate for and against euthanasia/assisted suicide, our class has been divided into two groups and I have been placed in the group for. I have been appointed as one of the main speakers to argue our case and this is where I ask for your help. I would be very grateful if anyone can post their opinions on this matter and their reasons why? It can be for or against but because I am on the for team I would love to see if anyone agrees with it. I personally agree with some aspects of it but I am on the fence due to it being such a sensitive issue. The results from this post will be used in the debate but just the numbers of people not details etc... So opinions are very welcome thank you for reading, much appreciated.

There is no condition where anyone need " suffer and scream" from extreme pain/agony at the end of their life. If that was the case, it was needless and someone was not doing their job.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

First you should point out the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide

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Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.

There are many things worse than death. Dying painfully is one of them.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
There is no condition where anyone need " suffer and scream" from extreme pain/agony at the end of their life. If that was the case, it was needless and someone was not doing their job.

This is a common but completely false myth about our ability to manage pain, suffering, and misery at the end of life, and unfortunately causes people to dismiss the topic of extreme measures.

For instance, it's not all that unusual to have patients admitted to the ICU just for their palliative care needs. I had a patient recently who was receiving as much 400mg dilaudid/hr (likely well above receptor saturation), along with a ketamine gtt, precedex gtt, superhuman decadron doses, ativan gtt, versed gtt, and promethazine as a potentiator and the patient just writhed around constantly moaning and screaming in pain, we finally had to just initiate terminal sedation using propofol which she died on.

And that assumes that pain is the only cause of suffering at the end of life. Just loss of independence can be a far more miserable than the worst pain for some patients. And not all patients respond well to opiates, many people find them euphoric but some find it's effects to be dysphoric, so basically their choices are to be miserable from pain or miserable from the pain meds. Most importantly, the only one who gets to decide if we do actually have the ability to adequately reduce their pain and suffering is the patient, and clearly many disagree that is always possible.

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Oregon's DWDA has been in effect for 18 years now and there is a lot of good information available on how it has worked.

You might also google "hemlock society". The organization it self no longer exists, but there is a pretty good Wiki article on it with lots of relevant information.

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Specializes in CVOR, CVICU/CTICU, CCRN-CMC-CSC.
I'm very much for it. I'm also very much pro-choice and pro-death penalty.

My time in the MICU further exemplified my position. There are fates worse than death. Keeping someone trached on a vent, dependent on PEG tube feedings for years on end is not any way to live. That's just one such example.

Same here.

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Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.
This is a common but completely false myth about our ability to manage pain, suffering, and misery at the end of life, and unfortunately causes people to dismiss the topic of extreme measures.

For instance, it's not all that unusual to have patients admitted to the ICU just for their palliative care needs. I had a patient recently who was receiving as much 400mg dilaudid/hr (likely well above receptor saturation), along with a ketamine gtt, precedex gtt, superhuman decadron doses, ativan gtt, versed gtt, and promethazine as a potentiator and the patient just writhed around constantly moaning and screaming in pain, we finally had to just initiate terminal sedation using propofol which she died on.

And that assumes that pain is the only cause of suffering at the end of life. Just loss of independence can be a far more miserable than the worst pain for some patients. And not all patients respond well to opiates, many people find them euphoric but some find it's effects to be dysphoric, so basically their choices are to be miserable from pain or miserable from the pain meds. Most importantly, the only one who gets to decide if we do actually have the ability to adequately reduce their pain and suffering is the patient, and clearly many disagree that is always possible.

Oh my word. This is exactly why I am pro-assisted/prescribed suicide

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There is no condition where anyone need " suffer and scream" from extreme pain/agony at the end of their life. If that was the case, it was needless and someone was not doing their job.

Liked by mistake.

I've seen it. Not often. And not recently.

Wanting death to escape pain is the saddest thing ever.

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Specializes in ICU.
There is no condition where anyone need " suffer and scream" from extreme pain/agony at the end of their life. If that was the case, it was needless and someone was not doing their job.

Or the physicians were unwilling to override the families.

Just based on what I've seen, suffering at the end of life (at least in ICU) is usually the family's doing. They can't accept that their mom/grandmother/whatever is in so much pain we have to sedate her until she is sleeping to keep her comfortable. They want her awake, and insist we turn off all the pain medications so they can interact with her, because obviously, it's more important that the family members get their needs met than that the patient is comfortable.

Most physicians will agree to this and d/c all sedative/analgesic orders to appease the family. After all, the patient is dying, it's not like the patient is going to sue. It is the path of least resistance just to let the patient writhe in agony as he/she dies.

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Or the physicians were unwilling to override the families.

Just based on what I've seen, suffering at the end of life (at least in ICU) is usually the family's doing. They can't accept that their mom/grandmother/whatever is in so much pain we have to sedate her until she is sleeping to keep her comfortable. They want her awake, and insist we turn off all the pain medications so they can interact with her.

Most physicians will agree to this and d/c all sedative/analgesic orders to appease the family. After all, the patient is dying, it's not like the patient is going to sue.

Cali :inlove:

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A few thoughts... allowing someone to die is not the same thing as killing them.

When the argument of "usefulness" or "quality of life" enter the conversation, the question "by what or whose standards needs to be asked". Those are dangerous questions because if the person in question can't answer for some reason, does someone else get to say if they live or die? We'll never know if Terry Schivo wanted to live or not. She died because someone else said she wanted to.

Finally, what happens when the right to die becomes the duty to die? When people are shamed into ending their life? Or worse, when they're not even asked? It has happened in the Netherlands, ironically, where, in the 1930's and 40's a group of people tried the same thing.

Pain management today is such that no patient need suffer from a terminal disease. Eliminate the suffering, not the sufferer.

Netherlands in the WW 2 era? Hitler's Day? Or are you saying it happened more in our time?

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This is a common but completely false myth about our ability to manage pain, suffering, and misery at the end of life, and unfortunately causes people to dismiss the topic of extreme measures.

For instance, it's not all that unusual to have patients admitted to the ICU just for their palliative care needs. I had a patient recently who was receiving as much 400mg dilaudid/hr (likely well above receptor saturation), along with a ketamine gtt, precedex gtt, superhuman decadron doses, ativan gtt, versed gtt, and promethazine as a potentiator and the patient just writhed around constantly moaning and screaming in pain, we finally had to just initiate terminal sedation using propofol which she died on.

And that assumes that pain is the only cause of suffering at the end of life. Just loss of independence can be a far more miserable than the worst pain for some patients. And not all patients respond well to opiates, many people find them euphoric but some find it's effects to be dysphoric, so basically their choices are to be miserable from pain or miserable from the pain meds. Most importantly, the only one who gets to decide if we do actually have the ability to adequately reduce their pain and suffering is the patient, and clearly many disagree that is always possible.

Well said MunoRN...

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