Obligations as a Nurse - Essay Example

Ethical Implications

One of the ethical implications of the case includes the way chosen to lead Terri to the point of death. There were several options available that included but were not limited to giving Terri an over-dosage of sleeping pills. Starving someone to death is indeed very cruel. It is amongst the most painful ways of killing someone as it is a slow process, full of pain and suffering, which only increases as time goes by till the individual is dead. It was not necessary to let Terri go through all this pain and suffering when there were other options available using which, she could have killed in no time.

Obligations as a Nurse

Obligations to my profession and work as a nurse pertaining to this case include doing what is required to follow the government’s decision. As a nurse, it is no less than an ethical dilemma for me, where if I don’t follow the government’s decision, my status as a nurse is challenged and my job is at risk. On the other hand, if I follow the government’s decision and starve Terri to death, I have to fight against my own conscience as a human being, and I know this is a fight I am going to lose, and this may jeopardize my peace of life forever.

Laws regarding Euthanasia

Laws related to euthanasia vary from one country to another. Some countries consider euthanasia an illegitimate practice that is thus condemned, whereas other countries are more flexible and have specified certain conditions in which euthanasia can be given to a patient. There are also certain countries like Australia that had legalized euthanasia once but later changed the rule. “On 25 May 1995, the Northern Territory of Australia became the first place in the world to pass right to die legislation. The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act lasted 9 months before being overturned by the Australian Federal Parliament” (Exit International, 2012). Today, all territories and states of Australia deem euthanasia illegal. In the USA, there is a particular federal law related to assisted suicide or euthanasia. It is prohibited under general homicide laws in all the 50 states of the USA including the District of Columbia. Laws related to euthanasia are dealt with at the state level instead of the federal level in the USA. 36 states in the USA prohibit all kinds of assisted suicides, seven states in the USA prohibit them under common law, four states in the USA do not have specific laws related to euthanasia, whereas three states including Montana, Washington, and Oregon have rendered euthanasia legal (ProCon.org, n.d.).

Stakeholders in the Case

The stakeholders in this scenario include the government, the people of America in general, Terri’s family in particular, and most importantly, Terri herself. Terri was starved to death upon the government’s decision without her or her family’s consent being involved in it. This did not only take Terri’s life but also had a traumatic effect on her family as well as all citizens of America who felt concerned for Terri and were disappointed by this decision of the government. The government is surely one of the stakeholders in this case since the decision-making power is fundamentally assumed by the government and the decisions made by the government affect the lives of common people like Terri and her family.

Summary of the Impacts

Being a nurse is a big responsibility by all means. A nurse is essentially someone who assists people with activities meant to improve their health. The conventional image of a nurse is of a helping, caring, and loving individual. Giving someone euthanasia is one of the extremely challenging tasks for a nurse since it fundamentally challenges the status of the nurse as a caring individual and is also emotionally demanding. Our social and religious values guide us to take care of the well-being of all human beings, not some human beings. Euthanasia is against these social and religious values. How long a person lives is to be decided by God Almighty, not human beings. When humans take this decision into their own hands, it may have many negative implications on society, as well as the nursing practice.

Application of Ethical Theory

Terri’s case can be analyzed with respect to certain ethical theories. The doctor’s approach to starve Terri to death was wrong and unjustified with respect to the absolutism theory of ethics. “According to absolutist ethics, fixed and unchanging ethical rules exist and those rules apply to all individuals in all cultures” (LaFave, 2008). Absolutism promotes a universally applicable system of norms and values at all times upon everyone. In the presence of more decent and quicker methods of euthanasia, starving the individual to death is never universally applicable.