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The importance of palliative care
Principles of palliative care uk essay
The importance of palliative care
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What is Euthanasia? Euthanasia is ending the life of a person deliberately to relieve their pain. It usually happens when a person is terminally ill or is suffering from a lot of pain and there is no other option to relieve the pain. Most of the time it is due to the person’s own request but sometimes it is done when the person cannot speak for itself and the family members have to decide for them. Euthanasia is really not a bad thing and it should be legalized in my opinion. Forms of Euthanasia: Euthanasia comes in different forms some of them are discussed below: • Active and Passive Euthanasia In active euthanasia a person deliberately causes the patient to die where as in passive euthanasia they don’t really take the patient’s life they just let them die. Passive Euthanasia can be done by two ways: o Withdrawing Treatment, where like you stop the machine which is keeping the person alive or o Withholding Treatment, where you do not perform the procedure which could extend the patient’s life. • Voluntary and Involuntary Euthanasia: Voluntary is when the person decides on its own that he/she wants his life to end. On the other hand, involuntary euthanasia is when the person is unable to decide for himself and so someone else, someone close decides for them. • Indirect Euthanasia: Indirect Euthanasia is providing such drugs which speed up the patient’s death. • Assisted suicide This usually refers to cases where the person who is going to die needs help to kill them and asks for it. It can be simply providing drugs to that person. What People is favor of Euthanasia say: The life of a person is their own will. It is a private matter and nobody except that person has any right to decide whether it should be allowed or not! You ca... ... middle of paper ... ... about Pakistan, where I live there very less hospitals at the moment which provide proper care to patients and if the hospital beds would be full of such patients then other people whose diseases can be cured would not be treated properly. These hospitals are very expensive. Most of the people over here cannot afford this much money to bear the cost of such expensive treatments which can keep them alive till their time comes. There are no palliative care specialists in this country nor is the government in support of anything like this till now! If there is no proper palliative care in this country then at least euthanasia should be allowed so that the people don’t suffer this much. They deserve to die peacefully. Euthanasia should be allowed and only granted after the consult of at least two doctors after which the patient should be allowed to terminate his life.
Euthanasia is one of the most complicated issues in the medical field due to the debate of whether or not it is morally right. Today, the lives of many patients can be saved with the latest discoveries in medicine and technology. But we are still unable to find cures to all illnesses, and patients have to go through extremely painful treatments only to live a little bit longer. These patients struggle with physical and psychological pain. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. discusses the topic of just and unjust laws in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which brings into question whether it is just to kill a patient who is suffering or unjust to take that person’s life even if that person is suffering. In my opinion people should have the right, with certain restrictions, to end their lives in the way they see fit if they are suffering from endless pain.
However it can also make room for medical, legal and ethical dilemmas. Advances in medical technology enable individuals to delay the inevitable fate of death, overcome cancer, diabetes, and various traumatic injuries. Our advances in medical technologies now allow these individuals to do things on their own terms. The “terminally ill” state is described as having an incurable or irreversible condition that has a high probability of causing death within a relatively short time with or without treatment (Guest, p.3, 1998). A wide range of degenerative diseases can fall into either category, ranging from, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease and many forms of cancer. This control, however, lays assistance, whether direct or indirect, from a
Euthanasia comes from the Greek word that means “good death” (“Euthanasia” Literary). In general, euthanasia refers to causing the death of someone to end their pain and suffering oftentimes in cases of terminal illness. Some people call this “mercy killings.”
Euthanasia is voluntary, when an alert, aware, competent patient agrees to it being performed, and euthanasia is involuntary when it is performed on a patient without the patient's clear understanding and agreement. Euthanasia may be an obvious, clear-cut act acknowledged as such by both the medical staff and patient or may be an action or series of actions that are put forward as being "standard" medical treatment. An example of a clear act is when a patient is given a lethal intravenous dose of potassium or insulin or an oral fatal dose of sedatives. However, a patient may be given gradually escalating doses of morphine or other narcotics for sedation or analgesia, in the knowledge that the morphine will hasten death.
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been a hot topic of debate for quite some time now. Some believe it to be immoral, while others see nothing wrong with it what so ever. Regardless what anyone believes, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should become legal for physicians and patients. Death is a personal situation in life. By government not allowing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide they are interfering and violating patient’s personal freedom and human rights! Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have the power to save the lives of family members and other ill patients. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should become legal however, there should be strict rules and guidelines to follow and carry out by both the patient and physician. If suicide isn’t a crime why should euthanasia and assisted suicide? Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be legal and the government should not be permitted to interfere with death.
Legalize physician assisted suicide - Those that believe that physician assisted suicide should be legal primarily argue on the basis of patient autonomy and family considerations. The first argument, patient autonomy, states that terminally ill patients should have the right to control the circumstances of their death and to determine when t...
Critics to the idea of providing dying patients with lethal doses, fear that people will use this type those and kill others, “lack of supervision over the use of lethal drugs…risk that the drugs might be used for some other purpose”(Young 45). Young explains that another debate that has been going on within this issue is the distinction between killings patients and allowing them die. What people don’t understand is that it is not considered killing a patient if it’s the option they wished for. “If a dying patient requests help with dying because… he is … in intolerable burden, he should be benefited by a physician assisting him to die”(Young 119). Patients who are suffering from diseases that have no cure should be given the option to decide the timing and manner of their own death. Young explains that patients who are unlikely to benefit from the discovery of a cure, or with incurable medical conditions are individuals who should have access to either euthanasia or assisted suicide. Advocates agreeing to this method do understand that choosing death is a very serious matter, which is why it should not be settled in a moment. Therefore, if a patient and physician agree that a life must end and it has been discussed, and agreed, young concludes, “ if a patient asks his physician to end his life, that constitutes a request for
who has not explicitly requested aid in dying. This is most often done to patients who are in a
“Machines can extend the length but not always the quality of life” (Cloud,2000,p.62). As doctors, they need to think about the well being of the patient and if any methods could really help the situation. It is hard to let someone that is close to us die, but we need to look beyond the fact that you will miss them. You need to think about what is best for the patient and if they are terminal; prolonging their life is not the best thing. It is important to prepare for our own death and make our wishes known.
Thesis Statement: Physician assisted suicide or euthanasia may offer an accelerated and pain relieved alternative to end someone’s suffering, therefore people should not be denied the right to die especially when faced with terminal illnesses.
“Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending life of another person to relieve that person's suffering and where the act is the cause of death.”(Gupta, Bhatnagar and Mishra) Some define it as mercy killing. Euthanasia may be voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary. When terminally ill patient consented to end his or her life, it is called voluntary euthanasia. Non voluntary euthanasia occurs when the suffering person never consented nor requested to end a life. These patients are incompetent to decide because they are either minor, in a comatose stage or have mental conditions. Involuntary euthanasia is conducted when it is against the will of the patient (Gupta, Bhatnagar, Mishra). Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia means life-sustaining treatments are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia occurs when a physician do something by giving drugs or substances that ends a patient’s life. (Medical News Today)
Euthanasia has been an ongoing debate for many years. Everyone has an opinion on why euthanasia should or should not be allowed but, it is as simple as having the choice to die with dignity. If a patient wishes to end his or her life before a disease takes away their quality of life, then the patient should have the option of euthanasia. Although, American society considers euthanasia to be morally wrong euthanasia should be considered respecting a loved one’s wishes. To understand euthanasia, it is important to know the rights humans have at the end of life, that there are acts of passive euthanasia already in practice, and the beneficial aspects.
The different types of Euthanasia are active or passive euthanasia and voluntary or involuntary euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia generally refers to the ending of a persons life by removing the person from a life-sustaining machine, such as a respirator. This form of euthanasia is endorsed by the American Medical Association and is less controversial than active euthanasia. Active euthanasia refers to ending a persons life by a competent medical authority giving the person a lethal injection of a muscle relaxant or pain killer medication. The terms voluntary or involuntary refer to whether or not a patient requests euthanasia or whether the patient is not able to make such a request and euthanasia is carried out by a competent medical authority at the request of another family member, or by a competent medical authority’s decision. Involuntary euthanasia usually occurs when a patient is comatose.
life-sustaining treatment that a patient wants but that they deem "futile." or "inappropriate" or "inappropriate." Alarmingly, hospitals in California and throughout the country have begun. to implement these "futile-care" policies that state, in effect: "We reserve the right to refuse service. " Medical and bioethics journals for several years kept up a drumbeat. advocating the implementation of medical futility policies that hospitals for obvious reasons -- don't publicize.
Death is final. Some die naturally in a peaceful manner while others suffer through tremendous pain in order to get there. Euthanasia is the only way for some people to leave all their pain behind. Euthanasia is the act of killing another person in a merciful way. Of course, euthanasia has many more meaning to it than that. A person that is suffering from a terminal illness decides that life is not worth living because there is too much pain involved and ends his own life, would that be wrong of him? That is the question that is at hand.