Assisted Suicide: Hospice Care as a Merciful Alternative

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack D. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care

The Good Death, Virtue, and Physician-Assisted Death: An Examination of the Hospice Way of Death

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin G. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Voluntary Euthanasia ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Comfort Care ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right

The problem of physician-assisted death (PAD), assisted suicide and active euthanasia, has been debated predominantly in the ethically familiar vocabulary of rights, duties, and consequences. Patient autonomy and the right to die with dignity vie with the duty of physicians to heal, but not to kill, and the specter of “the slippery slope” from voluntary euthanasia as a last resort for patients suffering from terminal illness to PAD on demand and mercy killing of “hopeless” incompetent patients. Another dimension of the debate over PAD concerns the evaluative question of what constitutes a good death. At stake are Issues of character and virtue in the face of death and dying and their Implications for legitimizing the practice of PAD. Critics of PAD argue that “natural” death in the context of comfort care, as provided by hospice programs, is the good death. In contrast, PAD amounts to an easy way out, an evasion of the ultimate human challenge and task of dying. Because hospice care is clearly preferable to PAD, the former should be encouraged and the latter remain prohibited.

How do we die?

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Stabile ◽  
Aubrey Grant
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Policy And Practice

Within the next two decades, the elderly population in the United States will reach its zenith, comprising 73 million individuals, 20 percent of the nation, the baby boomers’ final surge. The process of their dying may become contentious. Should policymakers and bioethicists be satisfied with our current approach to dying, or should they begin now to reconceptualize it? We distill end-of-life discussions in the bioethics literature and popular press, paying particular attention to physician-assisted suicide and its uptake where legal. Evidence so far indicates that few of the dying opt for this alternative, suggesting that its role in assuring “death with dignity” cannot be, as may have been hoped, a leading one. The end-of-life literature on the whole lends credence to the fear that most of the dying, along with their families and physicians, will muddle through a morass of uncoordinated options, with futile medical intervention the most prominent outcome — despite more palliative strategies, such as home hospice care, being favorably described. We found no reason to recommend persistence in our current approach to dying and found good reason to urge early, conscientious, and thoroughgoing reconceptualization in policy and practice as well as in theory.

Attitudes of Physician Assistants to Hospice Care and Assisted Suicide

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-180
Author(s):  
Nicole E. Berge ◽  
Frank J. Prerost ◽  
Phoebe Foltz
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Physician Assistants

scholarly journals EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF UBUNTU IN RELATION TO DYING WITH DIGNITY IN PALLIATIVE AND HOSPICE CARE

Obiter ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntokozo Mnyandu
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Dying With Dignity ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Right ◽  
Hospice And Palliative Care ◽  
Court Of Appeal

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Minister of Justice and Correctional Services v Estate Stransham-Ford raised more questions than the answers it provided. However, of note is the enquiry it made regarding the implications of palliative care in relation to whether the criminality of physician-assisted suicide and physician- administered euthanasia infringes a person’s dignity. In response, this paper aims to reconstruct – through the lens of Ubuntu – our understanding of human dignity and draw links with how the values of compassion and survival, which underpin Ubuntu, enjoin us as a re-affirmation of human dignity, to strive towards making hospice and palliative care readily available. Ultimately, this is done for the benefit of providing constitutionally sound reasons for why greater emphasis should be placed on palliative and hospice care when it comes to dying with dignity. To this effect, a conceptual framework of human dignity that is based on Ubuntu is summarised. This is done for the purpose of properly aligning the understanding of the right to dignity to one that represents our constitutional dispensation and ethos. Flowing from this is an extract of the values of compassion and survival that underpin Ubuntu. These values are then used to gain a lucid perspective, as to why – in our pursuit of providing a dignified death for terminally ill patients – greater emphasis should be placed on hospice and palliative care.

Hospice Care and the Bereavement Process in Two Countries: Experience from the United States and the Netherlands

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-189
Author(s):  
Robert L. Wrenn ◽  
Zbigniew Zylicz ◽  
David E. Balk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Outcomes Research ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Bereavement Care ◽  
Hospice Organization

The authors examine the bereavement process within hospice programs in the United States and in the Netherlands. Topics covered include brief histories of hospice within each country, circumstances that constrain bereavement outcomes research, approaches to hospice bereavement services in each country including bereavement program protocols developed by the National Hospice Organization for programs in the United States, issues of bereavement care and physician-assisted suicide, and an overall comparison of hospice bereavement services in each country.

Hospice care and assisted suicide

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
David Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care

Dysphagia in Hospice Care: The Roles of Social Work and Speech-Language Pathologists

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Hinson ◽  
Aaron J. Goldsmith ◽  
Joseph Murray
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Patient Communication ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Four Levels

This article addresses the unique roles of social work and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in end-of-life and hospice care settings. The four levels of hospice care are explained. Suggested social work and SLP interventions for end-of-life nutrition and approaches to patient communication are offered. Case studies are used to illustrate the specialized roles that social work and SLP have in end-of-life care settings.

Acceptability of Assisted Suicide in Patients With Severe and Persistent Mental Illness

GeroPsych ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sophie Gloeckler ◽  
Manuel Trachsel
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnosis ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Psychiatric Nurses ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Persistent Mental Illness ◽  
Moral Attitudes

Abstract. In Switzerland, assisted suicide (AS) may be granted on the basis of a psychiatric diagnosis. This pilot study explored the moral attitudes and beliefs of nurses regarding these practices through a quantitative survey of 38 psychiatric nurses. The pilot study, which serves to inform hypothesis development and future studies, showed that participating nurses supported AS and valued the reduction of suffering in patients with severe persistent mental illness. Findings were compared with those from a previously published study presenting the same questions to psychiatrists. The key differences between nurses’ responses and psychiatrists’ may reflect differences in the burden of responsibility, while similarities might capture shared values worth considering when determining treatment efforts. More information is needed to determine whether these initial findings represent nurses’ views more broadly.

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