Should doctors and nurses get to decide when to end the unresponsive patient’s life?
Ending the Life of Unresponsive Patient
The life of a person, whether sick or healthy, is a gift from God that no man should interfere with. Doctors and nurses have a responsibility to uphold human dignity and social justice (De Lima 4). Therefore, nurses and doctors do not have the right to end the life of unresponsive patients. The reason is that it would create social injustice against patients or families whose patients are chronically ill (Sprung 203). The autonomy to end the life of a patient would mean physicians would end up neglecting the core responsibility of providing palliative care.
Patients and their families are always hopeful that they will get well soon and resume their normal lives. For example, a sick father is expectant of seeing his wife and children again. However, killing the patient would mean cutting off the hope of recovery (De Lima 6). It is evident in healthcare settings that some patients emerge strong after going into a coma for a long time (Sprung 200). Others surprise medical practitioners by recovering from spine or brain injury. Doctors thus have no moral obligation to end the life of a patient despite their condition.
Nurses and doctors have no moral right to decide what to do with the life of a patient. It would mean they have the right to the neglect lives of others and preserve some (De Lima 7). In religious settings God did not intend human beings to die until Adam sinned. He also has a plan to resurrect human beings again to live forever. It is thus not right for healthcare practitioners to end the life of a person which is against the will of the creator (Sprung 199). Nurses and doctors should not participate in mercy killing since it would degrade the sacredness of life.
Works Cited
De Lima, Liliana., et al. “International association for hospice and palliative care position statement: euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.” Journal of Palliative Medicine 20.1 (2017): 3-14.
Sprung, Charles L., et al. “Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia: emerging issues from a global perspective.” Journal of Palliative Care 33.4 (2018): 197-203.
