Euthanasia is a deliberate action taken to end a life, aiming to relieve suffering from a disease or another health-associated condition. The concept of euthanasia is associated with various ethical issues. One of concerns is that it provides an instrument to cover murders leading to deaths of people who did not want to die. On the other hand, euthanasia serves as an opportunity to avoid suffering when the disease cannot be cured, and patients consciously decide to finish suffering. The following essay analyzes two research works on euthanasia that shed light on different facets of euthanasia in contemporary medicine.
Personal views of medical staff on euthanasia have been reported to cause emotional problems on both sides and affect healthcare effectiveness (Ay & Öz, 2019). The article analyses how different personal circumstances influence the attitude of nurses towards euthanasia. Among factors identified in this study are having a child, professional experience, the ability to define definition of euthanasia and others.
The study by Ay and Öz published in 2019 contains current information relevant to Turkey’s town Ankara. The writing is unbiased; it accounts for the data collected from randomly chosen medical staff (Ay & Öz, 2019, p. 3). Even the most controversial part of the study – measuring attitudes is based on a well-defined scale published by independent research groups and accepted by the medical society.
The strongest point of the article is that it recognizes that while most nurses agreed that patients’ requests for euthanasia were caused by the wish to end suffering, only a few nurses considered the importance of improving the quality of life of these patients, which could reduce death wishes. That is an important finding that reveals underappreciation of healthcare in patients requesting euthanasia. It is important not only to help patients fulfill their legal wishes but also to improve patients’ lives to reduce these wishes.
The weakest part of the article is that most of the participants did not clearly define the concept of euthanasia, which casts doubt on the reliability of the sampled data (Ay & Öz, 2019, p. 13). The prior consultations of medical staff and improving the nurses’ awareness of the issue of euthanasia and ethical issues around it will provide means to collect safer information in future investigations.
The study by Verhofstadt et al. summarizes current initiatives and analyzes an issue of euthanasia in psychiatric patients. The article identifies important extensions to legal requirements in this case, such as the need for at least two positive pieces of advice from at least two psychiatrists to make a decision and a prior evaluation system. The writing also describes facets of healthcare in situations when the request for euthanasia is rejected.
The study raises in an unbiased manner several important concerns about euthanasia in psychiatric patients. Among others they are patient’s mental competence and symptomatic inconsistency of mental disorders, which are further elaborated based on the most recent data of independent researchers (Verhofstadt et al., 2019, p. 151).
The strongest point of the article is that it thoroughly describes decision-making procedures, including the involvement of the patient’s relatives and the urgency for an unbiased opinion of more than one professional (Verhofstadt et. al, 2019, p. 152). While providing extensive guidelines in euthanasia decision-making, it also describes difficulties observed in implementing and interpreting these requirements, which is important for effective healthcare for patients with mental disorders.
The weakest part of the article is that it does investigate any feedback information from healthcare staff, who is supposed to execute the guidelines described (Verhofstadt et al., 2019, pp. 151-154). For this reason, it is unclear to what extent the guidelines and requirements are met and whether the gap exists between this understanding and awareness of medical staff.
Euthanasia is an important facet in the contemporary healthcare, entailing many uncertainties and ethical issues need to be resolved and clarified in the future. Among others, education and support for healthcare staff is paramount in this field. Although huge improvement was made in understanding and accepting euthanasia, further research and implementations are needed to ensure high quality of healthcare.
References
Ay, M. A., & Öz, F. (2019). Nurses attitudes towards death, dying patients and euthanasia: A descriptive study. Nursing Ethics, 26(5), 1442-1457.
Verhofstadt, M., Van Assche, K., Sterckx, S., Audenaert, K., & Chambaere, K. (2019). Psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia: Guidelines for sound clinical and ethical decision making. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 64, 150-161.