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Funminiyi Makinde
Funminiyi Makinde
May 31, 2022
May 31 at 8:31pm
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The principle of respect for autonomy is usually associated with allowing or enabling patients to make their own decisions about which health care interventions they will or will not receive, choice to continue living or end it, right to treatment and right to refuse treatment. Recognition of the particular vulnerability of patients’ autonomy has underpinned the inclusion of respect for autonomy as a key concern in biomedical ethics. (Beauchamp TL, 2009). In states where medical aid in dying is legal, patient self-determination extends to include a terminally ill patient’s autonomous, voluntary choice and informed request to self-administer medication to hasten death. (ANA 2015).
Religions teaches us about moral, and from there we learn that killing oneself in one way or the other is immoral, which in some case has become a culture. Some people believe that life is sacred and once we are not able to create a life, we should not consider taken it. However, while some people might decide that the suffering and indignity that characterize their lives are not sufficiently bad to make life not worth continuing, other people in the same situation will deem their condition unbearable and just need to end it, is all about patient choices, right and autonomy. Just as it would be wrong to force people to die, so is it wrong to force people to endure conditions that they find to be unbearable to live.
Nurses fundamental right is to safe life, have empathy, respect patient right and autonomy. The delivery of high-quality, compassionate, holistic and patient-centered care, including end-of-life care, is

central to nursing practice. Hallmarks of end-of-life care include respect for patient self-determination, nonjudgmental support for patients’ end-of-life preferences and values, and prevention and alleviation of suffering. (ANA 2015). It will be immoral and unethical for nurses to help or assist end patient’s life regardless of condition. Patient should be allowed to make autonomous decisions intentionally and with substantial understanding and freedom from controlling influences about choice they have to end their life if they choose to.
Patients are empowered and have right for taking decision for their health, nurses have same right to respect their autonomy, we just need to serve as an advocate making sure this decision were not taking out coercion showed them empathy and not sympathy. Nurses are ethically prohibited from administering medical aid in dying patient. But they must be comfortable supporting patients with end-of-life conversations, assessing the context of a medical aid in dying request (e.g., concern about treatable depression or coercion), advocating optimized palliative and hospice care services, and knowing about aid in dying laws and how those affect practice.
Killing people or helping them to kill themselves is usually wrong, because continued life is, we assume, usually in those people’s interest. We would be in denial, to think that continued life is always in a person’s interest. Quality of life can fall to abysmal levels. While there can be reasonable disagreement about how poor the quality must be before life is not worth continuing, it is an indecent imposition and violation of their right to force them to endure a life that they have reasonably judged to be unacceptable