Professional Nursing

Professional Nursing

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss the ethical perspectives of legalizing Euthanasia in Australia. Australian legislation clearly depicts the illegality of euthanasia. This paper will explore the statement 'Euthanasia: Should it be legal?' The main objective of this paper remains to discuss the concepts of euthanasia in relation to the nursing ethics and the care of patients. The profession of nursing is made to save lives and make people feel better in the best possible way. I believe that the utilization of euthanasia must remain illegal because I am not in the favor of ending someone's life intentionally. This paper will discuss the legal status of euthanasia with the perspective of nursing ethics and the care of patients with respect to ANMC Standards.

Discussion

Defining Euthanasia

Euthanasia basically refers to the practice of providing an end to someone's life intentionally in order to relieve pain and suffering. Euthanasia is a 'Greek' word having a literal meaning of 'good death.' Euthanasia is further defined as taking such actions which results in taking someone's life with the justification of providing an end to his or her sufferings. Ending someone's life intentionally is referred to as euthanasia as defined by the Belgian Act 2002 (Cuttini et al. 2004 Pp. 19-24).

Arguments against the Legalization of Euthanasia

According to Ian, Michael and John in 2005, providing euthanasia ultimately results in unlawful and unnatural deaths. There is no justification of the fact that the patients who are provided with euthanasia could not have survived well. I believe that legalizing euthanasia would empower the law abusers and also increase the mistrust towards the professions of providing health care. I believe that nurses must be able to condemn any such act because euthanasia is no justifiable legally, morally and professionally in any case. Promotion of euthanasia calls for decreasing the trust of people in the field of medical care. Victimization is also promoted. The nursing ethics do not provide certain evidences which support the practice of euthanasia being legalized (Ian, Michael & John, 2005 Pp.125-150).

There is also an argument that mercy killing can transform itself from the 'right to die' to the 'right to kill.' Moreover, the nursing ethics also requires nurses to handle their patients with extreme care and sensitivity. Handling euthanasia is not an easy task. Legalizing euthanasia would increase the probability of euthanasia being mishandled. It is always hard to assess the nature of person's level of sufferings. One doctor might assume that the patient must die because he is not able to recover, while the other doctor might suggests that the patient still have the ability to recover and euthanasia must not be utilized (Vandekieft, 2005 Pp. 175-177). This conflict will increase if euthanasia is legalized.

Further, this conflict will also create problems for nurses. Nurses would not be able to concentrate on the levels of care as they must. The nursing ethics standards provided by ANMC standards bind all the nurses to provide quality care without any biasness and ...