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Voluntary euthanasia is the process of terminating a patient’s life due to his/her own consent to end the suffering that they are undergoing. The issue of euthanasia has been debatable for over a long period now, with some supporting it while others rejecting its legality. Despite the fact that it is illegal in most countries, nurses usually face the difficult process of decision-making when asked to perform voluntary euthanasia. According to Healey (2008), nursing as a profession has its own ethics that governs the behavior of nurses. Notably, one of their ethics on euthanasia states that a nurse has to perform euthanasia with the consent of the patient or the relatives.
Concerning that, a nurse has no option but to adhere to the rules that govern the profession. A person can recommend the nurse to give their patient some drugs so that he can die to take the pain away. This would be a personal decision of the patient or the relatives and the nurse would have to work by them despite the nurse’s personal stand. Euthanasia has made nursing as a profession a challenging thing for many to pursue because of their religious stands, which are against euthanasia.
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Impacts on Social Value, Morals and Nursing Practice
Normally, we believe that life is God given and only God can take it away. Our society is generally against taking one’s life away, and this applies to everybody. However, voluntary euthanasia has negative effects on these morals and the nursing practice.
It is vital to note that voluntary euthanasia means that people would have to go against their religion. Most people hold enormous beliefs and believe that going against one’s religion is sinful, thus one of the effects is sin. Syme (2008) asserts that people may just have to do what their patients want, but they personally do not support it. This also applies to nurses who defy their personal stand so that they respect their professional ethics.
Another notable effect to the nursing practice is that it soils the nursing profession, and this may make people with strong religious stands to shy away from practicing nursing as a profession. Voluntary euthanasia is not desirable for the nursing practice. The nursing ethics doubtless needs to be respected, but they have to consider the personal views of the nurses. Generally, voluntary euthanasia has enormous negative effects on social values, morals and societal norms.