Week_5__Annotated_Bibliography.

For this project, I have chosen a topic that was discussed in week 4’s discussion, Physician Assisted Suicide. It is a topic that I am not completely comfortable with but as a nurse, I need to come to terms with the fact that I do not need to understand patient decisions but just accept them. Throughout their lives, individuals make choices for themselves to better their bodies, better their education, who they marry, and in general just what kind of person they want to be. Even though most people do not get to choose how they leave this world, some people are put in a position to where this is possible. This kind of choice involves many ethical factors that revolve around each specific case. Factors for the healthcare workers would be the integrity of the workers, as nurses and doctors sign up in order to help and save lives. Other ethical factors would be a possible wrong diagnosis or a terminally ill disease. Ethical factors for the patient would be them using their autonomous rights, as well as choosing to have a death with dignity. Either way you look at it, there are so many factors that can come into play with PAS, which is why it is such a hard topic to be comfortable with. Using Kantian Ethics, I do not believe that Kant would side with Physician Assisted Suicide as he believes that we should do the right action regardless of consequences. Now this can be looked at from both sides as what the right action is, is completely up to the individual. Some healthcare workers might believe that the right action is to continue to fight for the patients live and to have them push forward and continue living. While on the other side, other workers can say that the right action would be to assist the patient and let them carry on their wish because it is their choice. Because PAS is not a natural way of dying, I believe this is why Kant would disagree with the patient choosing this. This study source was downloaded by from CourseH on :26:35 GMT -05:00