Thus the choice is not "save money by allowing patients to die." The choice is, rather, "allow patients to die rather than taking heroic measures, and redeploy these scarce resources to improve overall healthcare, quality of life and lifespan."
Nurses are required, as one of the 9 conditions of their oath, to triage and rationalize the giving of healthcare. If an ER nurse, for example, has a series of patients with whom she can only deal one at a time, he/she must make the 'triage' decision to focus on the patient who can benefit from his/her care the most.
That means that not all patients can receive the same level of care.
Lost in the debate about Oregon's "right to die" legislation is that the State of Oregon also embarked on a thoroughgoing analysis of healthcare rationing. The state disallowed a number of categories of medical treatment, and cut back on a number…...
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Bibliography
Crisci, M. (2001). Attitudes towards death and dying in a representative sample of the Italian population. Palliative Medicine, 372-378.
EIU. (2007). World Economic Glossary 2008. London: Economist.
Journal. (1981). Our Changing Attitude towards Death. The Journal of Popular Culture, 741-743.
Klein, E. (2007). The Health of Nations: How Europe, Canada, and our own VA do health care better. The American Prospect, n.p.
A patient can rescind a request at any time and in any manner. The attending physician will also offer the patient an opportunity to rescind his/her request at the end of the 15-day waiting period following the initial request to participate. (Oregon "Death With Dignity" FAQ)
Additionally, there are reporting requirements, on the part of the physician. The state has consciously set about to track the utilization of the law and make adjustments accordingly. "Physicians must report all prescriptions for lethal medications to the Department of Human Services, Vital ecords. As of 1999, pharmacists must be informed of the prescribed medication's ultimate use." (Oregon "Death With Dignity" FAQ)
The individual, physician and witnesses must contest that the patient must not appear to be suffering from any psychological disorder that would impair his or her judgment or decision making processes. The criteria that an individual must meet to participate in the act…...
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References
Alemayehu, B., and K.E. Warner, (2004) "The Lifetime Distribution of Health Care Costs," Health Services Research 39: 627-42.
Botterman, M., Anderson, R.H., Van Binst, P., Cave, J., Libicki, M., Ligtvoet, a., et al. (2003). Enabling the Information Society by Stimulating the Creation of a Broadband Environment in Europe: Analyses of Evolution Scenarios for Future Networking Technologies and Networks in Europe / . Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Foss, N.J. (2005). Strategy, Economic Organization, and the Knowledge Economy: The Coordination of Firms and Resources. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Both doctors feel physician-assisted suicide is a compassionate alternative to living the remainder of life filled with pain and suffering. Many others agree, and there are even published documents instructing loved ones and physicians how to go about assisting in a death with dignity suicide. In fact, many physicians feel that physician-assisted suicide could help keep health care costs in check as the baby-boomer generation ages. Unfortunately, statistics are lacking in the area of terminally ill patients and how many would end their lives if given the choice. Statistics do show, however, that many physicians receive requests for medications that will hasten death, or requests for lethal injections, and that a small number to comply in some cases.
Many physicians oppose the practice because they feel it goes against the oath they took to always save lives, while some do sympathize with terminally ill patients. here are also similar considerations…...
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Two of the most well-known advocates of physician-assisted suicide are Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Dr. Timothy Quill. Moral conservatives oppose euthanasia because they believe it is morally wrong, and is the same as ending life-sustaining treatment. Both doctors feel physician-assisted suicide is a compassionate alternative to living the remainder of life filled with pain and suffering. Many others agree, and there are even published documents instructing loved ones and physicians how to go about assisting in a death with dignity suicide. In fact, many physicians feel that physician-assisted suicide could help keep health care costs in check as the baby-boomer generation ages. Unfortunately, statistics are lacking in the area of terminally ill patients and how many would end their lives if given the choice. Statistics do show, however, that many physicians receive requests for medications that will hasten death, or requests for lethal injections, and that a small number to comply in some cases.
Many physicians oppose the practice because they feel it goes against the oath they took to always save lives, while some do sympathize with terminally ill patients. There are also similar considerations for nurses and pharmacists who might be involved in the assisted suicide. The most famous proponent of physician-assisted suicide is Dr. Jack Kevorkian, now serving a prison sentence for the practice in Michigan.
The Supreme Court has upheld Oregon's right to die act, while striking down other rulings in other states. Their latest decision recognizes this is a state issue, rather than a federal one. The Oregon Act originated in 1994, and was finally passed in 1997. Since then, it has undergone several legal challenges, but continues to be upheld in the courts. It is interesting to note that in an Oregon study, not everyone who requests a lethal dosage of medication actually ingests the medication and dies. Some choose to keep their lethal dosage, and some die before they can use it. The numbers of requests for lethal doses each year have remained stable, as well.
What the physician must take into account when approving the lethal medication is more than just the patient's state of mind and medical condition. The patient's family can and should be taken into consideration. Any patient whose family strongly and vocally opposes the physician-assisted suicide might have a more difficult time convincing a physician that the choice to euthanize is the right one.
In addition to supporting the rights of the patient and his or her family and also protecting the doctor from being persecuted for a physician-assisted suicide, an important parameter of the act is education. The Act demands that statistics and data be gathered as part of an ongoing research initiative. The Oregon state government and any interested think tank, university, or public policy organization to learn from the statistics gathered as a requisite part of the Death with Dignity Act. One of the main objectives of the…...
death: suicide, euthanasia and the death penalty. Looking at certain aspects of each and discussing the issues concerning society. Also providing a sociological out look and economic basis for the arguments.
Death: Three Chances
Suicide is not a new phenomenon it has been around as long as mankind. The causes of suicide have been discussed on many occasions, and different theories have merged regarding the reason for which someone would commit suicide. There have been many studies undertaken in order to understand the phenomena in greater detail. Certain social factors were identified as being causal or contributing to this phenomenon, and suicides was broken down into different types, with different causes.
Henslin just as Durkheim before has looked at suicide, which Durkheim defined as any action which, leads subsequently to the death of the individual, either through positive action, such as hanging oneself or shooting oneself, or by way of negative action,…...
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References
Conwell Yeates, MD; Caine Eric D., MD 'Rational Suicide and the Right to Die: Reality and Myth' (1991 Oct 10); The New England Journal of Medicine, pp 1100-1103
Callahan J 'The ethics of assisted suicide' (1994 November);Health and Social Work, Vol. 19, PP. 234-244.
Donchin, Anne Autonomy, interdependence, and assisted suicide: Respecting boundaries/crossing lines. Bioethics. 2000 Jul; Vol 14(3): 187-204.
Haralambos and Holborn, (2000), Sociology; Themes and Perspectives, London, Collins.
But as it currently stands, the practice is pervasively regarded by United States law as manslaughter, with its perpetrators subject to prosecution to the fullest extent thereof. This is why at present, the American court system "goes beyond attempting to have assisted suicide legalized. Instead, it seeks to have hastened death constitutionalized." (Marker, 6).
This speaks to one perspective on the capacity of this legislation to alleviate personal pain and suffering for those contained within Oregon's public healthcare system. The terms of the 1994 legislation are quite specific in their delineation of preconditions required for the administering of a lethal injection using a legally controlled substance. These include multiple levels of physician and witness approval concerning the patient's physical and emotional state as well as a mandatory waiting period during which the patient is enabled to reflect on the decision before reaching a final resolution. The helps to shape its…...
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Works Cited
Oregon. (1994). Death With Dignity Act. The Oregon State Website. Ret. 12/29/06
Dying with dignity is a controversy argued in two perspectives by death scholars. Some scholars argue that dying with dignity is expiring without unnecessary physical pain while others argue that it is dying in the socially accepted ways. eaching these arguments was in light of changing health care demands and diverse customary practices. This controversy dated back to the ancient civilizations when many Greeks believed that taking one's life was better than experiencing endless suffering. This made physicians give poison to the terminally ill patients. However, with the advent of Christianity, the Hippocratic School that was against giving deadly drugs to patients acquired considerable acceptance. Therefore, euthanasia, as called in the fifteenth century was suicide and thus immoral. As time passed, reintroduction of the use of euthanasia continued, and it has even been largely accepted in various medical institutions.
In the perspective of dying with dignity as dying without any unnecessary…...
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References
Beauchamp, T.L., & Childress, J.F. (2009). Principles of biomedical ethics (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gentzler, J. (2003). What is a death with dignity? The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 28(4), 461 -- 487.
Poroch, N.C. (2012). Kurunpa: Keeping spirit on country. Health Sociology Review, 2i (4), 383-395.
Moreover, in Perry v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 38 (1990), the Court used that decision to bolster Louisiana's attempts to forcibly medicate a prisoner in order to make him death-eligible. If one agrees that the death penalty is a just penalty for one who has committed a capital crime, and that the reason that mentally ill defendants should not be executed is because they lack competence, then it does not seem unethical to allow them to be forcibly medicated in order to be competent. After all, in that scenario, avoiding medication could be likened to any other attempt to avoid punishment. Moreover, an organic physical disorder that arose after conviction, but that would have prevented a defendant from committing a crime, would not be sufficient reason not to execute a person on death row.
However, forced medication, especially for court appearances, may violate a defendant's Fifth Amendment right to present a…...
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References
Bonnie, R. (2007). Panetti v. Quarterman: mental illness, the death penalty, and human dignity. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 5, 257-283.
Fentiman, L. (1986). Whose right is it anyway? Rethinking competency to stand trial in light of the synthetically sane insanity defense. University of Miami Law Review, 40, 1109-1127.
A good example is the 1985 murder of convenience store clerk Cynthia Barlieb, whose murder was prosecuted by a district attorney bent on securing execution for Barlieb's killer (Pompeilo 2005). The original trial and all the subsequent appeals forced Barlieb's family, including four young daughters, to spend 17 years in the legal process - her oldest daughter was 8 years old when Cynthia was first shot, and 25 when the process ended without a death sentence (Pompelio 2005). During those 17 years, Cynthia Barlieb's family was forced to repeatedly relive her murder.
hen a person is murdered, it is understandable that American society demands justice, particularly on behalf of the victim's family and loved ones. But we can not advocate capital punishment under the guise of protecting the interests of victims' families, and then cut those members out of the process when they do not support the death penalty. and,…...
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Works Cited
American Civil Liberties Union (2002). "ACLU Praises Supreme Court Refusal of 'Sleeping Lawyer' Case as 'Acknowledgment and Reminder' of Death Penalty Problems." Retrieved Sept. 30, 2006 at http://www.aclu.org/capital/unequal/10466prs20020603.html .
Antonio, Michael E. (2006). "Arbitrariness and the death penalty: how the defendant's appearance during trial influences capital jurors' punishment decision." Behavioral Sciences & the Law. March 2006.Vol.24, Iss. 2.
Laws and Health Care
The health care industry has undergone massive overhaul in recent times and the impact of the laws and regulations that accompany this change have deep and resounding effects on the way professionals approach their industry. The purpose of this essay is to explain the role of governmental regulatory agencies and their effect on the health care industry.
This essay will first provide two examples of laws and regulations that have empirically demonstrated a noticeable and impactful transformation of the system. The next section of this essay is how these laws have personally affected me and my environment in Samaritan Hospital and how these regulations both serve and detract from our overall objectives of patient quality and healing those who seek our help.
Example 1: Affordable Care Act
Laws and regulations are present at many different levels within the health care industry. Private practices surely have their own rules and regulations…...
Emanuel, E.J., Daniels, E.R., Fairclough, D.L., & Clarridge, B.R. (1996). Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: attitudes and experiences of oncology patients, oncologists, and the public. The Lancet, 347(9018), 1805-1810.
Euthanasia comes from the Greek phrase meaning "good death," ("Euthanasia" 112). The various practices that fall under the general rubric of providing a person with the means for a "good death" include physician-assisted death, also referred to as physician-assisted suicide. Until recently, all forms of euthanasia were illegal in the United States and in most other developed countries but within the past generation, these laws have been liberalized so that citizens in democratic societies increasingly have access to a "good death." Physician-assisted suicide occurs under the guidance of an experienced and qualified physician, who is not legally obliged to agree to the practice. Therefore, no coercion takes place. The doctor is not permitted legally or ethically to coerce a patient into dying prematurely and the patient is likewise not ethically or legally allowed to persuade their doctor to intervene on their behalf. hat physician-assisted death laws do allow is for…...
death toll rises in Iraq and questions are raised regarding the foreign policies practiced by the United States, books like Jack Donnelly's International Human Rights become particularly relevant. American intervention in Iraq has become one of the salient political issues of our time, one that begs a thorough investigation of the need for international human rights policies. In his book, Donnelly presents a thorough overview of the politics of human rights, tracing its role in domestic and foreign policies since the Second orld ar. In fact, the author notes that before the 1940s, international human rights were of little importance. Isolationism and strict respect for national sovereignty guided foreign relations policies and precluded nations, individuals, or organizations from taking action to promote human rights outside of their own communities. Pointing out how the Holocaust moved human rights into the realm of international politics in conjunction with a burgeoning global…...
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Works Cited
Donnelly, Jack. International Human Rights. Boulder: Westview, 1993.
young, most of us do not think about making a conscious decision to die. e look forward to years of long and healthy life, and if death ever seems appealing it is as an antidote to depression. It does not often, if ever, occur to us that there will be a time when we look forward to the "good death" promised by euthanasia.
But it is inevitable that for many of us there will come a time in our lives when suicide may indeed seem appealing because we are fighting a losing battle against a certainly fatal disease that fills our remaining days with pain and despair. In such a position many of us may wish to have our doctors help us die by prescribing for us drugs that when we ourselves take them will prove to be fatal. Or we may wish that other people should have this option…...
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Works Cited
Callahan, Daniel, "Good Strategies and Bad: Opposing physician-assisted suicide," Commonweal, December 3, 1999, sec1. 7+.
NURSING CRITIQUE ON LAW: LIFE, LIERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF PALLIATION: RE-EVALUATING RONALD LINDSAY'S EVALUATION OF THE OREGON DEATH WITH DIGNITY ACT Y DURANTE (2009)
The objective of this study is to critique the work of Durante (2009) entitled "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Palliation: Re-Evaluating Ronald Lindsay's Evaluation of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act." The Death with Dignity Act was enacted by the state of Oregon on October 27, 1997. This act enables patients who are terminally ill to end their lives by use of self-administration of medications that are lethal in nature and that the physician has prescribed to the patient for this express purpose. The work of Durante (2009) examines the claims of Lindsay on this subject and reports that the evaluation of the experience of Oregon with physician-assisted suicide of Ronald Lindsay is "a much needed counterpart to moral speculation." (p. 28) According to Durante,…...
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Bibliography
Durante, C. (2009) Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Palliation: Re-Evaluating Ronald Lindsay's Evaluation of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The American Journal of Bioethics. 9(3): 28-45, 2009.
This is based on the theory, posed by citizens, that certain individuals afflicted with terminal illnesses should have the legal right to hasten their death.
As a result, individuals that acquire these disabilities often view death as an extremely viable solution.
The target population that the Oregon Death with Dignity statute involves are those that are terminally ill. There are both long and short-term effects of the statute on the rest of the population, as well as the target population. Oregon has the fourth highest rate of elder suicide in the United States, and the statute appears to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem. The statute gives physicians the long-term power to judge whether a particular suicide is rational, based on the physician's evaluation of the individual's quality of life. The short-term effect of the statute is that federal resources previously used to care for the elderly and terminally…...
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Bibliography
Gil, D. (1976). A Framework and Synthesis of Social Policies. Unraveling Social Policy:
Theory, Analysis, Political Actions towards Social Equality. Cambridge, MA: 31-56.
Gil, D. (1992). Unraveling Social Policy. (5th Ed.) Rochester, VT: Schenkman.
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