Physical, psychological, emotional, and mental suffering is ordinary for people living with a deadly disease; such patients often fear long-term incessant suffering. Chronic illness can bring many uncomfortable situations to patients, including pain, difficulty breathing, and depression. Nurses accompany the patient all the way from the initial discussion of the issue of voluntary assistance to the final provision of medicines (Willmott et al., 2021). Medical professionals can reassure patients that unpleasant symptoms can often be predicted and prevented and, if they occur, treated. The main tasks of a nurse are to help patients and care for them. In addition, nurses are required to teach people with chronic diseases that cause them discomfort that they have the right to pass away voluntarily.
Arguments Against Voluntary Assisted Dying
The question of whether nurses should educate patients about voluntary assistance to dying patients is still open. This is because some sick people may not know that they have the opportunity to voluntarily leave their lives and continue to live and fight for their health. In addition, the patient is likely experiencing so much suffering that it is more humane and correct to present them with a choice.
The argument against the fact that a person has the opportunity to leave life is that any life is a blessing. The ability to experience pain is equal to the ability to share feelings, even negative ones. In addition, by allowing patients to choose in favor of medical death, the state supports suicide. Finally, people can conclude that suicide and death are just as good as life. In general, the task of a nurse is to help patients, assist in recovery and help with the transfer of pain. Education on the issue of voluntary withdrawal from life is a contradictory action.
Offering a patient to pass away voluntarily is tantamount to suicide. From a religious point of view, this is considered a rejection of faith in God because suicide is viewed as a sin in Christianity. Believers should accept near-death sufferings as part of the atonement for sins and vices. People should have hope for a miracle and for the mercy of God, who will save them from pain and allow them to be cured of the disease.
There are cases when the patient experiences terrible agony and suffering and thinks about getting rid of it. They will probably not have thoughts about death, but a nurse who will tell them that there is a possibility of passing away by euthanasia will give them a week to think about it. During periods of suffering, patients can forget about the pain they can bring to their loved ones, that they can still live on after undergoing treatment. Having decided to kill themselves, they will no longer have a choice, which may become the fatal mistake of their lives.
Arguments For Voluntary Assisted Dying
Naturally, there are arguments for registered nurses to educate patients about voluntary retirement. Healthy people do not understand what a suffering person with a chronic disease can experience. Probably, knowing this, no one could conclude that even with great pain, life is a blessing. Patients experience discomfort for an extended period, and over time, this hurts their attitude to life, psychological state, and resilience. The disease can lead a person to a vegetative state, worsening the situation because such a state can no longer be called life.
Maintaining the life of a dying person causes great moral suffering to their relatives. People are forced to watch how a loved one dies every day and realize that soon they will no longer be able to see, talk, or stay close. In addition, it is often expensive to maintain the life of a dying person, and some people cannot afford to pay large bills. They are forced to suffer from helplessness, which will only negatively reflect their lives.
Affirmative Viewpoint
Nevertheless, registered nurses need to educate patients about the possibility of voluntarily passing away. People who have been experiencing torment and suffering from a chronic disease for a long time should have a choice to independently decide whether to live or die. Naturally, it is necessary to provide the patient with time to think about the decision and discuss it with close people. In addition, it is needed to offer alternative treatment options that will include pain relief and therapeutic drugs. It is necessary to complicate obtaining a permit for euthanasia so that this method is considered last and there are no abuses among the population.
Nurses should educate patients and educate them that they have a choice. The nurse must be aware that, first of all, her task is to provide care and treatment for a sick patient. Information that a patient may die should be provided as a last resort, and patients should make their own decision. In case of the patient’s incapacity, the decision should be made by relatives, but it is imperative that people still tend to treatment rather than euthanasia. Nevertheless, every person should have a choice, and the task of a nurse is to provide this choice.
Reference
Willmott, L., White, B., Sellars, M. and Yates, P. Participating doctors’ perspectives on the regulation of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria: A qualitative study. Medical Journal of Australia, 215(3), 125-129. Web.