End-of-Life Ethical Dilemma for Nurses - Essay Example

In a qualitative study, the differences in the ethical burden on end-of-life decisions between nurses and doctors were determined.  Although the research covered small sampling, which included seven doctors and 14 nurses working in critical areas, it never failed to convey the universal dilemma encountered by healthcare workers which is the struggle to arrive at a conclusive and moral decision regarding euthanasia.  Furthermore, the study’s findings concluded that the main difference in a mercy killing is that physicians are to deal with the “decision making itself” whilst nurses have to “live with these decisions”.

  Mercy killing is the kind of problem that does not leave the patient the sole right to decide.  It comes in varied forms of condition where the end result is the termination of the life of the patient.  Although a patient voluntarily requests for the termination of his life, ethical considerations must be taken into account.  More often a terminally ill patient is depressed so that the only solution he regards to, is death.  This issue leaves nurses and physicians the responsibility of determining the mental and emotional capability of the patient to decide for himself.

  There is also the issue of the legality of the family to represent the unconscious, clinically dead patient and to request for discontinuation of life support.   Across the world, euthanasia has occupied a constant seat in the debate regarding morality.