Euthanasia! your opinions needed please

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  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.

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.

I thought that the Hemlock Society had just changed its name to Compassionate Choices. I believe they're still "out there" (I get fundraising mailings from them periodically).

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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.

Terry Schiavo didn't have enough surviving brain function to "want" anything.

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I'm not sure what you mean by "perceived problem". Is there any other way to define misery other than how it's perceived?

Perhaps offlabel is saying that the suffering individual might perceive her/his situation as misery, but offlabel disagrees, so it's not really a problem ...

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And then there's the advanced dementias. Right now sitting with my iPad and able to reason amd able to get up to BR spontaneously, the thought of being a feeble shell anxious and confused and with nothing left of my former self and always in some state of torment is right up there with terminal, painful, dyspneic and/or debilitating illness.

What about those that must live in long term care requiring the highest level of care? For months or years. When even DNR and minimal medical measures are chosen but you're otherwise medically pretty stable? You guys who work in those facilities, how do you picture your end of life in those cases? Just ride it out and allow natural death that isn't going to come for a long time, often only as the result of complications related to a fall at some point?

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Specializes in OB.
And then there's the advanced dementias. Right now sitting with my iPad and able to reason amd able to get up to BR spontaneously, the thought of being a feeble shell anxious and confused and with nothing left of my former self and always in some state of torment is right up there with terminal, painful, dyspneic and/or debilitating illness.

What about those that must live in long term care requiring the highest level of care? For months or years. When even DNR and minimal medical measures are chosen but you're otherwise medically pretty stable? You guys who work in those facilities, how do you picture your end of life in those cases? Just ride it out and allow natural death that isn't going to come for a long time, often only as the result of complications related to a fall at some point?

This is what my family is struggling with right now with my Gram. She's 88, and her dementia recently began advancing rapidly, to the point where an "escape" from her assisted living facility ended up in a fall on the street, a broken shoulder, and a permanent move to an LTC. She's becoming more and more confused every time I see her, as compared to 6 months ago when she was semi-independent with her own apartment in the AL. She's starting to forget who we are. Yet she's basically quite healthy. Who knows how long she will live, but I know that I personally wouldn't want to be living the way she is now. I can tell she's not in pain or misery but she's not happy or getting any joy out of life. She wants to be with my Grampa, who died 25 years ago.

What do you do? There is no assisted suicide option for dementia. She's a DNR and we would always choose the most palliative options for her care if something happened to her, but right now she just sits around the nursing home, depressed. Statistically I know that probably she will fall again someday and break a hip. I just wish I had a way to make it better, somehow.

The one thing I'm so grateful for is the facility where she'll live out her days is unbelievably well-staffed with truly kind people. Thank you to LTC nurses everywhere

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Specializes in Hospice, Geriatrics.

I'm a hospice nurse. My beliefs and values have changed over the years guided by the changes I've made in my career choices, friends, family, spirituality, and aging. I used to believe save everyone, do everything so life can be preserved. I now believe, quality of life should be preserved at all cost. My patients direct their care, not the doctor. They choose what they want and will do and what they won't. I have witnessed calm peaceful deaths and deaths full of fear and anxiety and uncontrolled symptoms. More importantly I have witnessed deaths occur after "modern medicine" has done all it could and when people have said, "no, no treatment, enough is enough". I arm people with knowledge. At life's junctures I give them all the scenarios I can and tell them how their choices would most likely play out and I let them decide. Right now, more times than not I am arming the family as the patient is not able to comprehend and make choices due to their mental and physical condition. I tell them that they are the voice of their loved one, but we all know that their own emotions are playing a part in the decisions they make. What I am doing though is developing a future culture of people who will think differently about their own EOL.

For me? I have watched the disease processes of many, many illnesses. Should I have the time and wherewithal I've told my family I'll head to Michigan if I have to. (I live in a state where there is no choice) Many of us hospice nurses have already chosen the nurse they would like to have and the course of medications they'd like.

Medicine has created new and natural and creative ways for birthing, should dying be any different?

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Specializes in as above.

I agree! why? Quality of life, hon! Too many 'authorities' or so called experts spoil the broth. If the patient is not clinically depressed..as in his dog died, yes. If I have cancer yes. We as humans plus our still Victorian way of doing things, even in the 21st century, we over study things. Good luck! As your audience (most young)..these days are clued out except for texting on their cell phones, ask them to raise their hands. If its terminal, loss of quality of life..go for it.

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Wait.... all that stuff didn't work and propofol did? Giving the benefit of the doubt, given what you describe, it seems there might have been a more thoughtful response to treatment in your account of a suffering patient. Again, and it's not a myth. Anyone can be made comfortable without the intention of killing them. That it hasn't been your experience isn't a demonstration that it's not true.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Perhaps offlabel is saying that the suffering individual might perceive her/his situation as misery, but offlabel disagrees, so it's not really a problem ...

There is something eloquently Yogi Berra-esque about that way of thinking; You're not really suffering, it's all just in your head.

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Check out this documentary on Netflix, it's called "How to Die in Oregon"... It's all about doctor assisted suicides in Oregon and Washington...

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I thought that the Hemlock Society had just changed its name to Compassionate Choices. I believe they're still "out there" (I get fundraising mailings from them periodically).

Sort of......in 2002 or 2003 the name was changed to "End of Life Choices", and a year or so later they merged with the "Compassion in Dying Federation" to form a new national organization called "Compassion & Choices". This is the group that produced the documentary film "How to Die in Oregon" referenced above.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
When I've had debates like this assigned for class projects, I was expected to do more serious research than just the opinions of others. I hope you're putting together some serious arguments other than the opinions of a bunch of strangers on the internet, OP. :)

Most, if not all, responders on this site are medical personnel, and primarily RNs who have had the sad experience of seeing patients kept alive, but not really living.

I am now retired, and have been for ten years. I am just short of being 80, and should I be terminally ill, and the quality of my life was poor, I would opt for euthanasia.

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