Euthanasia is an ethically doubtful issue as one never knows whether his/her actions devoted to saving a life of a person are going to be effective or not. For example, considering two cases where people were dramatically injured in tragic events, one of them was left alive and another one was not permitted to. As a result, both sides are dissatisfied with the decisions. Dax Cowart, a man who begged to stop treatment remained alive, however, he is sure that each person is given birth with the exclusive right to live and with the exclusive right to die in case of an incident. None of the doctors and medical equipment has the right to interfere. However, he was saved after a painful treatment and he is sure that this is incorrect. Still, according to nurses’ responsibilities, they are to take care of patients and do all possible to protect their lives (Burkhardt, & Nathaniel, 2008). It seems that in this case nursing care was considered as harm, however, human life is sacred according to nursing ethics and other actions would be considered as murder. The absence of laws and no particular vision of nurses on the situation make the debate actual. Lack of consensus creates the following situation. Dealing with patients nurses pay more attention to personal consideration of euthanasia than to patients’ interests (Quaghebeur, Dierckx de Casterlé, & Gastmans, 2009).
References
Burkhardt, M.A., & Nathaniel, A.K. (2008). Ethics issues in contemporary nursing. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Quaghebeur, T., Dierckx de Casterlé, B., & Gastmans, C. (2009). Nursing and euthanasia: a review of argument-based ethics literature. Nursing Ethics, 16(4), pp. 466-486.