Voluntary/Assisted Euthanasia - Essay Example

Voluntary/Assisted Euthanasia Euthanasia describes a practice used in ending lives of patients as way of limiting their suffering. The patients in question are either terminally ill or undergoing severe suffering or a great deal of pain. The idea behind the practice remains offering an individual relatively good death without suffering. The element of voluntary assisted euthanasia elicits many ethical issues in medicine as physicians have a duty to preserve life (Randall & Downie, 2010). This remains one of the fundamental ethical concern in regard to the practice of voluntary euthanasia.

The duty to preserve life, which the physicians have, must be upheld and it works in contradiction to the practice. In the application of the ethical principle for preservation of life, it is illegal to end a patient’s life in any circumstances regardless of the patient’s condition. The physician must continue to assist the patient and ensure that death comes naturally. The practice can be misused by physicians and result in a compromise on the quality of services which are provided by the various healthcare facilities (Pereira, 2011).

The practice should remain illegal as this would ensure that the quality of care is focused at preserving life; hence the services offered would be standards.The practice of assisted voluntary euthanasia would be able to allow people to become psychologically prepared for death. As a result, however, some legal aspects of life like committing suicide could become legal elements within the society. The society would perceive death as standard procedure which one can seeks at a healthcare institution.

Such perceptions upon would have a negative impact on nursing practice since am physicians and nurses would not care much about patients’ lives.ReferencesPereira, J. (2011). Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls. Current Oncology, 18(2), e38.Randall, F., & Downie, R. (2010). Assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia: role contradictions for physicians. Clinical Medicine, 10(4), 323–325.