Euthanasia: failure or autonomy?

Farsides, Calliope

doi:10.12968/ijpn.1996.2.2.102

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…For example, some argued that patients may not be truly making an autonomous decision when confronted with a system that is unable to adequately address their suffering by providing accessible and high-quality palliative care 30,31. In contrast, others argued that assisted death should not be seen as a failure of the health care system but rather should be seen as a central consideration of patient autonomy 32. By being responsive to an assisted death request, and by engaging with it attentively, nurses were respecting the autonomy of the patient to make that request.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical, Policy, and Practice Implications of Nurses' Experiences With Assisted Death

Pesut

Thorne

Greig

et al. 2019

Advances in Nursing Science

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The conceptualization of assisted death as an act performed by physicians has resulted in a lack of attention to nurses' roles and experiences with the processes that surround an assisted death. In this article, we synthesize evidence from 6 articles focusing on the experiences of 55 nurses from Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with relevant ethical and policy implications derived from the literature. Nurses have a central role in negotiating inquiries about assisted death and in providing wraparound care for patients, families, and other health care providers. This role is impactful for nurses and requires significant personal and professional moral work.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical, Policy, and Practice Implications of Nurses' Experiences With Assisted Death

Pesut

Thorne

Greig

et al. 2019

Advances in Nursing Science

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“…A person organizes his or her own private life so that the government, doctors and nurses cannot counteract what a euthanasia requester considers as the individual realization of his or her autonomous choice. [21][22][23][24][25][26] Farsides 27 states that doctors and nurses must respect a request for euthanasia as an expression of the patient's autonomy, even if they do not consider themselves capable of or want to carry out this request. Similarly, Willard 28 indicated that caring for a patient is best achieved by respecting the patient's autonomy, even if he or she requests euthanasia.…”

Section: Respect For Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Nursing and Euthanasia: a Review of Argument-Based Ethics Literature

2009

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This article gives an overview of the nursing ethics arguments on euthanasia in general, and on nurses' involvement in euthanasia in particular, through an argument-based literature review. An in-depth study of these arguments in this literature will enable nurses to engage in the euthanasia debate. We critically appraised 41 publications published between January 1987 and June 2007. Nursing ethics arguments on (nurses' involvement in) euthanasia are guided primarily by the principles of respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice. Ethical arguments related to the nursing profession are described. From a care perspective, we discuss arguments that evaluate to what degree euthanasia can be considered positively or negatively as a form of good nursing care. Most arguments in the principle-, profession- and care-orientated approaches to nursing ethics are used both pro and contra euthanasia in general, and nurses' involvement in euthanasia in particular.

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“…49 A number of authors argued that upholding an individual’s right to die fosters human flourishing and in turn, facilitates a dignified and autonomous death. 21,48,50,51 These arguments can be summarized by the perspective that respect for persons requires respect for individuals’ autonomous decision-making. 21 Such arguments are predicated on the belief that individuals’ ‘own’ their death, just as they have ‘owned’ their life.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…21 Such arguments are predicated on the belief that individuals' 'own' their death, just as they have 'owned' their life. 21,50,51 For instance, Farsides 51 argued that requests for euthanasia are not an indication of failure of healthcare professionals' abilities to provide care, but rather an expression of autonomy or the right of an individual to make a 'choice that they consider consistent with the person that they are and the life that they have led' (p. 104). However, despite a firm commitment to upholding patient autonomy, a number of authors acknowledged and indeed emphasized, that the principle of autonomy ought not to be considered in isolation, such that it is seen without any limits.…”

Section: Ethical Principles Concepts and Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nursing and euthanasia: A narrative review of the nursing ethics literature

Pesut¹,

Greig²,

Thorne

et al. 2019

Nurs Ethics

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Background: Medical Assistance in Dying, also known as euthanasia or assisted suicide, is expanding internationally. Canada is the first country to permit Nurse Practitioners to provide euthanasia. These developments highlight the need for nurses to reflect upon the moral and ethical issues that euthanasia presents for nursing practice. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a narrative review of the ethical arguments surrounding euthanasia in relationship to nursing practice. Methods: Systematic search and narrative review. Nine electronic databases were searched using vocabulary developed from a stage 1 search of Medline and CINAHL. Articles that analysed a focused ethical question related to euthanasia in the context of nursing practice were included. Articles were synthesized to provide an overview of the literature of nursing ethics and euthanasia. Ethical Considerations: This review was conducted as per established scientific guidelines. We have tried to be fair and respectful to the authors discussed. Findings: Forty-three articles were identified and arranged inductively into four themes: arguments from the nature of nursing; arguments from ethical principles, concepts and theories; arguments for moral consistency; and arguments from the nature of the social good. Key considerations included nursing’s moral ontology, the nurse–patient relationship, potential impact on the profession, ethical principles and theories, moral culpability for acts versus omissions, the role of intention and the nature of the society in which euthanasia would be enacted. In many cases, the same assumptions, values, principles and theories were used to argue both for and against euthanasia. Discussion: The review identified a relative paucity of literature in light of the expansion of euthanasia internationally. However, the literature provided a fulsome range of positions for nurses to consider as they reflect on their own participation in euthanasia. Many of the arguments reviewed were not nursing-specific, but rather are relevant across healthcare disciplines. Arguments explicitly grounded within the nature of nursing and nurse–patient relationships warrant further exploration.

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Euthanasia: failure or autonomy?

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Ethical, Policy, and Practice Implications of Nurses' Experiences With Assisted Death

Ethical, Policy, and Practice Implications of Nurses' Experiences With Assisted Death

Nursing and Euthanasia: a Review of Argument-Based Ethics Literature

Nursing and euthanasia: A narrative review of the nursing ethics literature

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