A Good Death

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A Good Death

This topic area includes questions about values that should be advocated in end of life care and decision-making. It includes the ethics of euthanasia, but also the values we should use to think about our own and others' end of life decisions.

• Resource Needs:

• Definitions of Euthanasia
• Insights about Aging and End of Life Planning
• Specific arguments about personal and social (what the state should allow) approaches to end of life.
• Information about current approaches in Washington, Oregon and other states
• Research on how people actually approach end of life care decisions.
• Range of mainstream advice about end of life care.

Information

• Post summaries of something you learned about the topic that is important to thinking about it. Consult the resource needs list above for ideas. Use both Google searches leading to authoritative information and online databases, books, and articles linked through Foley Library.

• Merriam Webster defines "Euthanasia" as: "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy." (Posted By: John the Baptist)

• This link will take you to an interactive map of where Euthanasia is legal, illegal, and lacking statutes for or against it. http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2015/10/06/california-becomes-fifth-state-to-legalize-physician-assisted-suicide-interactive-map/ (Posted By: John the Baptist)

• Information on Washington state and death: The Washington Death with Dignity Act, Initiative 1000, codified as RCW 70.245, passed on November 4, 2008 and went into effect on March 5, 2009. This act allows terminally ill adults seeking to end their life to request lethal doses of medication from medical and osteopathic physicians. These terminally ill patients must be Washington residents who have less than six months to live. (Citation: DOH. "Death with Dignity Act." Washington State Department of Health. Washington State Department of Health, 2008. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.) -Savanah Van Citters

• This page gives definitions for the different kinds of euthanasia such as the difference between voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It also gives links to other websites and articles that may be helpful. (http://www.assistedsuicide.org/definitions_of_euthanasia.html) -Kate Pratschner

• This article provides information on the various types of euthanasia, whether it be voluntary, involuntary or non voluntary. It analyzes the role and importance of the patient. [Rethinking Voluntary Euthanasia] (Posted by St. Peregine Laziosi)

• The role of the physician in end of life decisions: Research shows that the physicians input has a large impact people's end of life decisions. Furthermore, the physicians are not objective in the decision making process. In fact their own set of social values plays a role in what information they give to or withhold from the patient in order to make their decisions. This means that the culture that they come from plays a role in how they make decisions and recommendations for their patients. For example, conservative and traditionally religious physicians tend to favor life prolonging treatments. (Citation: Cohen, Charles J; Chen, Yifet; Orbach, Heidi; Freier-Dror, Yossi; Auslander, Gail; Brwuer, Gabriel S. "Social values as an independent factor affecting end of life medical decision making." Medical Healthcare and Philosophy. 26 June 2014 18:71-80.) -Alex Neitz

• This article includes a video about a terminally ill woman who describes her reasons behind her decision to end her life through assisted suicide rather than succumb to her terminal brain cancer. This video also provides her family's testimony and why they chose to support this decision. Brittany Maynard decided to make this decision in order to "die with dignity". Additionally this article provides a small amount of debate on both sides of this issue. (Citation:Hirschhorn, D. (2014). Terminally Ill Woman Who Planned Assisted Suicide Dies. TIME. Retrieved February 8, 2016, from http://time.com/3553770/brittany-maynard-dies/) - Austin Rompel

• This study analyzes the perspective of many psychological professionals on the issue of assisted suicide. It explores their perspective in terms of several vignettes/ situations including on the basis of religion. (Citation:Levy, T. B., Azar, S., Huberfeld, R., Siegel, A. M., & Strous, R. D. (2012). Attitudes Towards Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide: A Comparison Between Psychiatrists And Other Physicians. Bioethics, 27(7), 402-408. Retrieved February 8, 2016, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c6dd0c45-76d9-4593-b1d0-bccd4c8f8acd@sessionmgr198&vid=7&hid=115) - Austin Rompel

• This link leads to a video and short article covering the national decision in Canada to allow physician assisted suicide. The video also gives personal testimony from the court session along with some of the issues that may arise in the interpretation of the new legislation. (Citation: "Canadian Court OKs Doctor-assisted Suicide, but Who's Eligible?" PBS. PBS, 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. --- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/canadian-court-oks-doctor-assisted-suicide-whos-eligible/) - Sophie Oswald

• This article details a study done in both the US and Australia aiming to better understand how critical care nurses feel end of life care could be improved. A major theme brought up by the hundreds randomly sampled included ensuring "a good death" with dignity and peace. The article also details ways in which critical care nurses and physicians are limited in their abilities to provide "good deaths" and how they believe the situation could be improved. See: http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/content/15/1/38.full.pdf+html -Megan Lantsberger

• This link takes you to the abstract and simple conclusions of a paper that sought to analyze the role of psychiatry in voluntary euthanasia. It makes suggestions about how laws should be constructed about voluntary euthanasia (if laws are created at all). They conclude that a psychiatric evaluation must be conducted before the decision is legally accepted and a "cooling off period" should also be instated. http://anp.sagepub.com/content/29/4/580.short -Megan Lantsberger

• This article is helpful in looking at this from a religious perspective (a moral authority for some). It includes information about ordination and marriage that you have to sift through but on page 78 there is a good table looking at attitudes toward euthanasia across sex and religious categories. Another table compares attitudes across sex and education level. The article unpacks these results. (Three Current Religious Issues: Marriage of Priests, Intermarriage, and Euthenasia- John P. Alston). -Maryclare O'Brien-Wilson

• Another thing to think about is not just the quality of life of one person as they reach the end but also of the people around them. I have many articles from my Psychology class on care-giver fatigue and deficits in relationships when one person cannot reciprocate the care. This brings up the discussion of putting loved ones in a nursing home- can this enhance quality of life? -Maryclare O'Brien-Wilson

• In 2008, Washington became only the second state to approve of assisted suicide, with Oregon being the first. In Washington, physicians are not listed on the patient’s death certificates, but instead the cause for the assisted suicide is reported as the underlying terminal disease. The death certificate also must not have the cause of death to be marked as “natural” and it must not mention that the Death with Dignity Act was used. (citation: "Washington State Issues 6th Official Report on Doctor-prescribed Suicide." Patients Rights Council. 6 Aug. 2015. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.) -Laura Moratti

• Definition: "End-of-life care is the term used to describe the support and medical care given during the time surrounding death." The following link also helps to give a description on how one actually goes about finding end of life care. It lists all of the different types, and how one might approach this subject, including mentioning who pays for what. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/end-life-helping-comfort-and-care/finding-care-end-life -Morgan Lancaster

• This article explores the idea of a "good death" for terminally ill or elderly people through a comprehensive look into the entirety of the dying experience. The authors cover a wide variety of topics ranging from physical to psychological considerations. They also make an interesting claim, in which they suggest euthanasia and assisted suicide "do not aim at modifiable dimensions of the patients experience" making their effect on a "good death" very limited. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=8bf60695-27fc-4888-8e60-c5df4130f712%40sessionmgr198&vid=4&hid=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=621430&db=pbh - Jacob Beardemphl

Arguments

• Post arguments that you find or want to put forward on this topic. You can research arguments by doing a Google search, but also by consulting databases like Philosopher's Index, Academic Search Complete, and Proquest.

• This article argues for integrated palliative care, as opposed to just end of life, but the points still follow with end of life. It goes over ethics, finance, morals, and the general role of CAM. CAM stands for “complementary and alternative medicine. Their main argument is looking at a person as a whole, not just a body. A quote that nicely summarizes is, “We are moving beyond notions of the body as a separate entity and acknowledging its interdependent relationship to all aspects of self.” [1] - Alex Bourguignon

Insights

• Post here under your name (or login anonymously and either use your saint name (if you want me to know who you are) or make up your own. Post a brief statement of your views as they are evolving on the topic. What arguments, values, and facts are central (or gaining prominence) in your thinking?