Voluntary Euthanasia

Nurses Activism

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I think one of the cruelest things we do is let patients lay in nursing home beds without the legal ability to terminate their own lives. I'd be interest in what other nurses think of this.

If you ask active people who are in their 40s and alert and you say to them "when you get older and you lose the capacity to know your surroundings and you no longer recognize your family members, and if you reach a point where someone has to change your brief in a bed or feed you your meals, would you prefer to live your life like that or would you prefer someone terminate your life painlessly and peacefully?"

What do you think most people's response would be???

Mine would be termination of my life! But guess what that is against the law in most states.

I'd be interested in knowing what other nurses think about this. We get trained over and over again about abuse. Well to me, the biggest abuse we commit is we do not allow Voluntary Euthanasia over laying in a soiled brief in a nursing home bed where we can't even feed ourselves anymore. Voluntary Euthanasia is illegal in all states and PAD is allowed only in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Vermont.

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
The belief in objective right and wrong. There are things that are always wrong regardless of prevailing opinion. There are things that are always right, regardless of personal opinions. When you hold a belief in objective right and wrong, you act accordingly. It's not that in voting I feel like imposing my own personal view on anyone. It's not MY view. I'm being obedient to the One whose view it is.

No one has to agree with me or join my Church. But I have the right to use whatever guidance I find appropriate in determining my votes and how I live my life. Just like anyone else does. Advocating that I should not be allowed a voice due strictly to the fact that you do not like my viewpoint is bigotry.

That's practically laughable. Didn't God let his Son die on the cross rather than saving him, isn't that murder? Or when He told a believer to kill his son as a sacrifice to prove his loyalty? If we're going to go by the Bible then every woman who goes to her wedding bed not a virgin should be stoned to death. And the penalty for divorce? Death.

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Specializes in hospice.

And it's clear your ignorance of my faith is just as deep as whatever claim you try to make against me. I've made my points, and demonstrated that many of you are bigoted against the religious . I have nothing further to add.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
Here is the way it breaks down-

Is the law FORCING you to DO something against your beliefs?

Is the law ALLOWING you to FORCE your beliefs on others?

I don't believe anyone should be able to force their RELIGIOUS (and that is what it boils down to) on others. Period.

Exactly!!!

I just don't know why people can't let others live in peace. It's scary that everyone who seems to tout "traditional values" wants to take away rights of others. Gay marriage has nothing to do with their marriage. Safe, affordable abortions have nothing to do with your reproductive rights. Dying with dignity on your own terms has nothing to do with how you choose to die.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
And it's clear your ignorance of my faith is just as deep as whatever claim you try to make against me. I've made my points, and demonstrated that many of you are bigoted against the religious I have nothing further to add.

Well actually you know nothing of me and my beliefs

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Wowza! too much baloney Please re -think your statement.

Not all pain in a human or an animal can be controlled by opiates.

My animal had metz to the spine.. she could no longer walk.. opiates cannot control nerve pain.

We added Neurontin.. she still was in pain and could not walk. I was toileting her with a sling during a Michigan Polar vortex.

"It is also VERY convenient and less expensive to end their lives."?

I spent $ 6000 dollars on my sweet Annie's diagnosis and treatment.. would gladly have spent another 6 grand if it would have helped. The day I put her down.. was one of the saddest days of my life. Spent an additional $ 250 to have her separately cremated.. have her ashes on my mantle with an eternal flame next to her.

I did my best.. it could never be enough.

Wow...you really went above and beyond the call for your sweet kitty.

I had to put my sweet baby Thomas down. He had renal failure; he was puking, had diarrhea,, and would just cry all day. My other kitty, Gato, had to be put down when he was no longer able to walk. He cried all day, too.

I didn't put them down for convenience. Everything we were doing for them just didn't help. There comes a point when there's nothing else to do, and the kindest thing you can do is ease them from a life of suffering.

It's naive to think any and all suffering can be remedied with drugs.

​(((BTDT)))

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

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So you would say the same to people who voted against Prop 8 in California then, right? Their moral views should not impact legislation.

Why yes, I absolutely would!! Who someone loves and chooses to marry is their decision. My or anyone else's "morality" has not a thing to do with it.

Interestingly, same sex marriage is legal in my state (WOO HOO!! That rocks!) and the married same sex couples that I know have been together for longer than my parents....some close to 50 years. (and my parents are very close to 50 years).

Thankfully, there are people who are brought up what one would consider "moral" but learns that character far outweighs a person's decision on who they marry, how they choose to handle and deal with a terminal diagnosis, yes, and let's just close the loop and say how they plan a family or lack thereof.

As a person, one can climb on the highest horse they can find and ride it all the way to town. As a nurse, it is not about you. It is about the patient. And never the twain shall meet.

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Specializes in hospice.

Jade, go back in the thread a bit, because Prop 8 is clearly not what you think it is.

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Jade, go back in the thread a bit, because Prop 8 is clearly not what you think it is.

It was a law--that did not pass-- that marriage be defined as between a man and a woman. I don't hold that belief. I don't also believe that in fact I have the right under the "One" or not to judge. People should be able to marry whomever they choose. People should have choices when they are terminally ill. People have the choice to do with what they would like to with their bodies and in their marriages. It is none of my business, and I don't like to attempt to make it my business. But that is me--others can and do feel differently.

As a nurse, one can not be on a moral high horse when there are patients (and they will come by the boatloads) who don't hold the same moral compass that any nurse on any given day follow.

People base morality on a pick and choose what we are to follow in the Bible. If one is to start really standing on a moral ground, then by all means, do it. Don't cut your hair, don't wear pants, don't wear makeup, and submit to your husband. And here's the clincher--make it well known that all of your patients need to do that too, and start getting some laws together.

Because the religious hot spots are only a few of them. It is not the biblical mandates of a whole. And my sincerest apologies to anyone where the statements listed above ARE how you choose to live. But the expectation can not be that your patients will follow suit.

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Wow...you really went above and beyond the call for your sweet kitty.

I had to put my sweet baby Thomas down. He had renal failure; he was puking, had diarrhea,, and would just cry all day. My other kitty, Gato, had to be put down when he was no longer able to walk. He cried all day, too.

I didn't put them down for convenience. Everything we were doing for them just didn't help. There comes a point when there's nothing else to do, and the kindest thing you can do is ease them from a life of suffering.

It's naive to think any and all suffering can be remedied with drugs.

​(((BTDT)))

ahh.. feeling the hugs.. thank you.

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Specializes in hospice.

Actually, Prop 8 did pass, and by a large margin. The courts struck it down.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
Actually, Prop 8 did pass, and by a large margin. The courts struck it down.

No not by a large margin 52/47 and then ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!

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