There comes a time in a patient with a chronic disease’s life where each day brings new pain and new struggles to the point where they barely feel like themselves. Though there is always the option for comfort measures or hospice care, there is another approach in some states that patients can take. Death with dignity allows patients with a limited prognosis to make the option to cut their suffering short in which the patient can take a medication that slows down the body and ultimately results in the death of said patient. However, there is a lot of criteria that must be met prior to ending one’s life medically, in which there is a series of assessments to ensure the patient is able to comprehend and understand the decision they are making. Personally, I feel that this provides a reasonable option to patients who are counting down the days until their suffering is over. The end of one’s life should be remembered and not spent in agony day after day waiting to die. With death with dignity patients can plan their departure before they are at a state of incapacity that they wish no one to see them in. Though this is a controversial option, I believe it provides a better option for critically ill patients who want to have a say in their prognosis and treatment plan.

In ethics, the most important principle is nonmaleficience in which the aim is to always do no harm. Death with dignity stands on a thin line with this philosophy in which are we causing harm by ending a patient’s suffering through death. Personally, I believe that death with dignity promotes this ethical principle in which it relieves a patient suffering rather that prolonging it. If the patient is sound of mind and able to make their own decisions, I do not see why it would be beneficial to go against their wishes. By giving the patient’s this option we are also advocating for the patient which follows another prominent ethical principle and that is autonomy. Our patients have the right to say no to treatment so why shouldn’t they have the right to say they are done living in agony especially if it’s taken up the majority of their life. As the nurse, we can cause the least harm by listening and advocating for our patients wants and needs in which I believe death with dignity falls into that category.