The role of critical care nurses in euthanasia and assisted suicide

Article Abstract:

Some critical care nurses appear to be practicing euthanasia. Euthanasia means the health care worker actively gives a patient some treatment that will hasten the patient's death. In a survey of 852 critical care nurses, 164 (19%) admitted engaging in some practice that hastened a patient's death. A total of 129 (16%) actively gave the patient a drug that would promote death, usually an opiate. A total of 342 of the nurses said they had thought about practicing euthanasia at some time, but had not done so. Most were afraid of getting caught and losing their license, knew that euthanasia was illegal, or were concerned that they might be misinterpreting the patient's request. Sixty-two of the nurses who engaged in euthanasia said they had done so in the absence of an order from the attending physician. Fifty-nine tried to hasten a patient's death by only pretending to carry out a physician's order for life-sustaining treatment. Many of the nurses were prompted by a strong desire to relieve the patient's suffering.

Practice, Nurses, Ethical aspects, Intensive care nursing

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The Supreme Court speaks: not assisted suicide but a constitutional right to palliative care

Article Abstract:

The 1997 Supreme Court ruling on physician-assisted suicide provides unexpected support for palliative care at the end of life. The Court ruled that patients do not have a constitutional right to assisted suicide but they do have a constitutional right to die a pain-free death. Several justices indicated that the Court would intervene against any state law prohibiting the use of opioids in terminally ill hospital patients or making the drugs difficult to obtain. The Court ruled that these drugs should be available even if they might hasten the patient's death.

Palliative treatment, Palliative care

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The Supreme Court and physician-assisted suicide: rejecting assisted suicide but embracing euthanasia

Article Abstract:

When the Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that physician-assisted suicide was not a constitutional right, the justices also endorsed a form of euthanasia called terminal sedation. This involves giving dying patients drugs that make them unconscious, which is sometimes the only way to relieve intolerable suffering. However, terminal sedation also involves withholding food and water. This makes it a form of euthanasia, and one which the patient may have no control over. Assisted suicide is ethically better because the patient can actively choose death.

Usage, Sedatives, Hypnotics and sedatives

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