Ethical Issue In Assisted Suicide

This article discusses the ethical issues surrounding assisted suicide, including the conflicting ethical problems experienced in its application and the need for valid consent from patients and their families. It also outlines the planning and implementation process for assisted suicide, including the importance of open communication and trust between healthcare providers and patients.

Running Head; Ethical Issue In Assisted Suicide 1
Ethical Issue In Assisted Suicide
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Assisted Suicide

Ethical Issue In Assisted Suicide 2
Ethical issue refers to a situation that requires an organization or person to choose and evaluate
between right and wrong. Assisted suicide can be defined as suicide done by an aide of a
physician or another person to end life either intentionally through prescription of high dosage or
euthanasia. The decision on assisted suicide may also be reached upon supplying of lethal drugs
or counseling about lethal drugs whose result is death upon usage. Assisted suicide involves
criteria for its planning and implementation because it does not obey ethics and law ("Is
Physician-Assisted Suicide Ethical?", 2019).
Assessment
Assisted suicide may be applied among disadvantaged people, but there are moral problems
associated with its implementation. Among conflicting ethical problems experienced in the
application of assisted suicide; healthcare provider oath to follow ethical practices in providing
quality care to all patients. This makes the oath to appear as a Hippocratic Oath for medical
practice among healthcare providers. A decision on assisted suicide should be made by involving
the family members, immediate guardians to the patients and medical research on available
options. A valid consent can be presented to a hospital requesting assisted suicide especially
when they feel their patient is likely to undergo unbearable suffering and they are experiencing
loss of dignity (University, 2019).
Planning
Before assisted suicide decision is reached, a healthy doctor-patient relationship is created to
explore available option (treatment options, medical facts, diagnosis results, legal data, values,
and beliefs) explained to the patient through open communication and trust. Factual information
must also be provided to the patient with actual details as well as communication on beliefs and

Ethical Issue In Assisted Suicide 3
values explaining assumptions and things that are important to the patient. Upon patient
understanding of the process, consent can be taken but if the patient is not clear with provided
information, guardians or family members maybe involved to obtain consent. Healthcare
providers are bound to ethical practice requirements of proving factual information to patients
before obtaining consent from them ("Ethical aspects of physician assisted suicide: All sides",
2019).
Implementation
Comparing available options before conducting assisted suicide, nurses must provide factual
information to patient, guardians or family to understand their desire about their patient before
any action is done. It helps to avoid conflict with the ethical principle of ANA Code of Ethics for
Nurses 2015; that nurses are responsible for actions and decisions they make during their nursing
practice and they should provide optimal care ("Physician Assisted Death in America: Ethics,
Law, and Policy Conflicts", 2019).
References

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Ethical aspects of physician assisted suicide: All sides. (2019). Retrieved from
http://www.religioustolerance.org/euth7.htm
Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Ethical?. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-
community/health-care-policy/article/physician-assisted-suicide-ethical
Physician Assisted Death in America: Ethics, Law, and Policy Conflicts. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.cato-unbound.org/2012/12/10/howard-ball/physician-assisted-death-america-ethics-
law-policy-conflicts
University, S. (2019). Assisted Suicide. Retrieved from
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/bioethics/resources/assisted-suicide-a-right-or-a-wrong/