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Results for “Humane and Dignified Death Act”

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18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Ethics.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1990

Recognizing personhood and the right to die with dignity.

Death cannot be viewed properly as either an event or a configuration. Indeed, multiple parts of the body can continue to live long after the disintegration of its central organization is recorded. Instead of collapsing at a moment in time, technological mechanisms are capable of sustaining the major bodily processes indefinitely--all designed to allow for the harvesting of needed organs for transplantation. State legislative efforts have been undertaken in America to define those specific circumstances when death occurs legally. Although always allowed to exercise reasonable discretion in their decision making, attending physicians will nonetheless be aided by these laws that only limit their legal liability but assure for the patient that his final choices will be honored consistent with basic principles of self-determination. The Law Reform Commission of Canada recommended in 1987 that criminal liability be rejected for the offenses of helping, advising, or inciting a person to commit suicide. This is an exceedingly wise and humane position to follow. Instead of being held captive to words such as "rational suicide" or "euthanasia", what is needed is an acceptance of more contemporary watchwords such as autonomy and self-determination. When at all possible, final choices about death should be made by the patient's family and their medical advisers--and not be subjected to judicial scrutiny.

Brain Death↗
PubMed1999

The case against physician assisted suicide.

Physician assisted suicide (PAS) engenders debate about the meaning of professional identity, what is proper in the doctor/patient relationship, and the physician's appropriate role in society. Polarization on PAS largely arises from different views on what defines compassion in relieving pain and suffering, and the proper balance between individual autonomy and social imperatives. This paper discusses the ethical, social and economic arguments against PAS, including a historical perspective on other socially-sanctioned inappropriate uses of medical technology and expertise. This paper maintains that a truly dignified death does not come at the hand of a physician-healer, despite compelling arguments that it is a compassionate act.

Euthanasia↗
PubMed2001

Is it time to pull the plug on the hostile versus instrumental aggression dichotomy?

Psychologists have often categorized human aggression as hostile or instrumental. Hostile aggression is "hot," impulsive behavior that is motivated by a desire to hurt someone; instrumental aggression is "cold," premeditated behavior used as a means to some other end. This dichotomy was useful to the early development of aggression theories and continues to capture important features of nonhuman aggression, but it has outlived its usefulness as a descriptor of fundamentally different kinds of human aggression. It is confounded with the automatic-controlled information-processing dichotomy, and it fails to consider aggressive acts with multiple motives. Knowledge structure models of aggression easily handle these problems. Taking extreme measures to preserve the hostile-instrumental dichotomy will delay further advances in understanding and controlling human aggression. Therefore, this seems a proper time to "pull the plug" and allow the hostile-instrumental aggression dichotomy a dignified death.

Aggression↗
PubMed2004

[Doctor and death].

Doctors are instilled with the need to avert and repress death. By virtue of their profession, death is considered the enemy, their mortal enemy. In modern-day hospitals in particular there is a tendency to reduce the mystery of death to a biological and technical algorithm. A critical revision of fundamental medical conduct is underway as a compensatory countercurrent to this age-old way of thinking and acting. This shift in attitudes involves a humane concept of the physician. His task is not limited to healing and reconstruction, but sometimes merely requires discriminatory restriction to palliation and accompaniment. Ever more physicians are becoming aware of the fact that they are equally responsible for the quality of dying. In coping with death, ethical imperatives are effectively juxtaposed against technical ones. Educational deficits relating to care of the terminally ill and dying have been recognized and are being rectified. This major ideational revision has led to concrete signs of turnaround which are blazing the trail toward more humane and dignified dying: palliation, adapted in accordance with modern science, is experiencing a renaissance. The essential features of a comprehensive palliative therapy are outlined. Assistance during dying (accompanying the dying, passive euthanasia) is contrasted with assistance to die (active euthanasia).

Attitude to Death↗
PubMed2002

Care of patients nearing death: another view.

A person with an advanced, progressive, ultimately fatal illness faces multifaceted suffering. It is difficult to be sick. Uncontrollable deterioration of one's body can be horrible. Many people detest seeking help from others, yet nearly all want companionship in the face of death. The choice is hard, between certain death, even if it is promised to be comfortable and dignified, and hope, even if it is a burdensome treatment that offers small chance of limited benefit. Dying patients are often expected to make such painful choices. Perhaps what is most painful is to be dying. A person whose near future necessarily contains all this will often need a trusted, unhurried companion, acting with gentle advocacy and humility. This paper offers perspective and suggestions to such companions/advocates.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Providing end-of-life care to patients: critical care nurses' perceived obstacles and supportive behaviors.

BACKGROUND: Critical care nurses care for dying patients daily. The process of dying in an intensive care unit is complicated, and research on specific obstacles that impede delivery of end-of-life care and/or supportive behaviors that help in delivery of end-of-life care is limited. OBJECTIVE: To measure critical care nurses' perceptions of the intensity and frequency of occurrence of (1) obstacles to providing end-of-life care and (2) supportive behaviors that help in providing end-of-life care in the intensive care unit. METHODS: An experimental, posttest-only, control-group design was used. A national, geographically dispersed, random sample of members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses was surveyed. RESULTS: The response rate was 61.3%, 864 usable responses from 1409 eligible respondents. The highest scoring obstacles were frequent telephone calls from patients' family members for information, patients' families who did not understand the term lifesaving measures, and physicians disagreeing about the direction of a dying patient's care. The highest scoring supportive behaviors were allowing patients' family members adequate time alone with patients after death, providing peaceful and dignified bedside scenes after death, and teaching patients' families how to act around a dying patient. CONCLUSIONS: The biggest obstacles to appropriate end-of-life care in the intensive care unit are behaviors of patients' families that remove nurses from caring for patients, behaviors that prolong patients' suffering or cause patients pain, and physicians' disagreement about the plan of care.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Bodyworlds and the ethics of using human remains: a preliminary discussion.

Accepting the claim that the living have some moral duties with regard to dead bodies, this paper explores those duties and how they bear on the popular travelling exhibition Bodyworlds. I argue that the concept of informed consent presupposes substantial duties to the dead, namely duties that reckon with the meaning of the act in question. An attitude of respect and not regarding human remains as mere raw material are non-alienable substantial duties. I found the ethos of Bodyworlds premature but full of promises such as public attitudes to organ donations. At the practical level I conclude that Bodyworlds should use only willed donations or unclaimed bodies for which dignified funerals are not available. In the case of live donations, Bodyworlds has a duty to participate in the medical care of needy donors. However, secrecy with regard to the source of cadavers seems to be the most troublesome aspect of Bodyworlds.

Anatomy, Artistic↗
PubMed1999

Ethical and practical considerations of withdrawal of treatment in the intensive care unit.

PURPOSE: To discuss the medical, ethical and legal basis of decisions to discontinue life-support therapy in the adult intensive care unit (ICU), and to provide practical guidelines for the discontinuation of life support therapy. SOURCE: Relevant articles were retrieved through Medline (1991-present; terms: ethics, life support discontinuation, double effect, beneficence, non-maleficence). Other sources include legal references, and personal files. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Understanding the legal and ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and double effect are crucial when withdrawing life support therapy. The law respects a competent patient's right to direct his/her healthcare but does not uphold his/her right to demand futile care. Surrogate decision makers can be used when the patient is incompetent, provided they are acting in the patient's best interest. Euthanasia is illegal and the distinction between discontinuation of therapy and euthanasia is legally clear. Skillful administration of palliative therapy cannot be construed as euthanasia when the aforementioned ethical principals are respected. The various practical methods of discontinuing therapy are discussed. Every ICU should develop its own guidelines and a checklist to help caregivers during this difficult time. Caregivers must anticipate the mechanism of death and direct interventions at the symptoms that are likely to cause discomfort. Drugs and dosages must be individualized, and depend on the underlying disease, anticipated mechanism of death, and the patient's pharmacological history. When prescribing a drug, the intention should be clear. CONCLUSIONS: Appropriate discontinuation of therapy in the ICU allows patients a dignified and comfortable death.

Dissent and Disputes↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The presence of love in ethical caring.

Caring as a virtue and an act of ethics is from both a natural and a professional point of view inseparably related to love as a universal/ontological value. Love is shown, like suffering and death, to be a concept of universal or metacharacter. From current nursing/caring science as well as from ethical and philosophical perspectives, this paper explores how love can be visible in caring through virtue and that the art of caring creates its evidence. The ethical and existential practicing of love, particularly unselfish love, allows a caregiver to come distinctly closer to the essence of his or her own personality and to live in a more authentic manner. Obstacles and alienation in caregivers that induce a holding back of one's own natural impulses to give the suffering patient tender, dignified care are examined. Economy, paradigm, and caring culture are cited, but ultimately it is a question concerning every caregiver's decision and responsibility to come forward to serve those the caregiver is actually there to represent, the suffering patient. This does not always require new knowledge, rather, liberation of the inner life and authenticity in caregivers. Love, if viewed only as a phenomenon without connection to a universal or ontological philosophy, risks being a problematic concept for caring science. If, on the other hand, it is viewed as the ontological basis for caring and ethical acts, then we can look for and practice phenomenological expressions for love that can enhance the patient's understanding of life as well as giving relief from suffering.

Empathy↗
PubMed1998

The dying thoracic patient.

Health care providers should understand that the practice of good medicine includes not only diagnosing and curing diseases, but also effectively communicating with patients and families and helping terminally ill patients die a peaceful and dignified death. Patients in America come from varied backgrounds, and it is important for physicians to consider cultural and religious issues. Physicians should combine their clinical judgment with objective outcome data to provide optimal care for patients. Informed consent should be obtained from patients after offering a detailed plan of care that would include appropriate interventions and the consequences of no intervention. The physician should then assist the patient in making a decision that would provide the best possible future for that individual. The four fundamental principles of biomedical ethics, namely beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice, should be considered when analyzing an ethical problem. Voluntary active euthanasia, which means performing a deliberate act (e.g., administering a lethal injection) to end a patient's life, should not be performed by a physician. Withholding and withdrawing basic and advanced life support constitutes passive euthanasia. Good communication with patients early in the clinical course whenever possible results in an ethically correct decision. A nonconfrontational, sympathetic, and compassionate approach to family members and legal surrogates facing the immediate death of their loved ones leads to the best possible outcome. It is the duty of the physician to assure the patient and the family that he or she will not abandon the patient. Effective communication is the key to solving almost all ethical dilemmas when caring for the dying thoracic patient.

Death↗