Are you as a Nurse justified in ending anyone’s life, out of pity, no matter how much pain they are in? Are you justified in giving them some aid in ending their miserable lives if they so beg or give you consent? Is it torture to constantly walk in a room and see your patient writhing in constant pain, crying and begging for relief yet you know there is nothing more to do save to wait for them to die? These questions are always in the back of some nurses’ minds and do give them pause.
Advances in medicine has been godsend, yet it has also been a curse of sorts. Our lives now drag on and on, the suffering lasts longer than it should. We as patients- even with terminal diseases- are pulled out of the verge of death over and over again just to have our painful, miserable existence extended a further ninety days, or six months. It’s a miracle when it works, when everything falls into place and a patient is saved, but it gets sad when nothing works and all we are doing is buying more days, weeks or months.
So far morphine has become the popular drug of choice. A large overdose of Morphine can cause asphyxia and a quick death. Some patients have asked for assisted suicide, willingly, but most have had death visited upon them early, unbeknownst to them, by a nurse with a syringe.
It’s true, most of these Nurses are disillusioned, even mental. Most need psychiatric help before they get caught up in a killing spree. The sad thing is that most don’t go screaming from the rooftops that they are killing their patients. It takes a few deaths, alert co-workers and a good investigator to unearth the truth and the extent of the killings.
The involuntary killings aside, are we as a nation ready for voluntary/assisted suicide? Are nurses willing-especially in cases of strong religious ethics-to take part in this? Is there anything wrong with assisted suicide, where there is extreme pain and suffering?
Some states, such as Vermont, have passed the law allowing Physicians to prescribe medicine to end lives. "Vermonters who face terminal illness and are in excruciating pain at the end of their lives now have control over their destinies. This is the right thing to do," said Governor Peter Shumlin.
Some other States are joining the bandwagon.
It sounds like a smart move, the humane thing to do. This is set to benefit especially those willing to die, yet cannot accomplish the task due to some limiting handicap. If one cannot be able to commit suicide, yet they want it due to a chronic disease, then by all means they deserve assisted suicide.
Some proponents see it different. Some of these are religious conservatives, same ones who crusade against legalized abortions. They do have some valid rationales. One friend of mine asked, what is the difference between one getting a prescription to commit ‘assisted suicide’, and one who lopes a rope on a tree and hangs himself?
Technically, there is no difference, both just can’t stand their lives as-is. Problem is, we as a society see suicide in most other forms-blowing your brains out, hanging yourself, jumping off a building etc-as cowardly, a cop out, no matter the reason. But really, what is the difference? If you had a terminal disease, and you stood on a balcony at the top floor of a sky scraper announcing you are ready to jump, the Police and firefighters will pull all stops to ensure you live, yet the same patient can walk to a physician’s office and come out with a cocktail that will kill him? Legally?
This is a rather complex topic, where no one knows any better than the patient himself.
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