I was introduced to death with dignity my freshman year of college when we were learning about ethical principles. My thoughts towards the subject is that I respect and value the choices of those patients who decide to utilize it. I think that it allows the person a certain kind of freedom that is rare to have, which is knowing when and how you will die. I think everyone at some point or another has those worries or thoughts of when will be the day that they will pass away. To have the opportunity to take control of what’s left of one’s life must be comforting to them. At the end of the day, this is a decision that can make the end of their life how they envision it: loving, comforting, around family and friends, and at minimal pain and discomfort. If that’s something that someone wants, I am all for it. I feel that more states should have this offered, and people should truly get a choice with how they want to end their life having a terminal illness. 

Nonmaleficence, or do no harm, is one of the ethical principles that nurses are taught to adhere by. The death with dignity act has challenged this, and pretty much goes against everything that this ethical principle stands for if we are talking technically. Throughout my nursing career, I would never disobey this principle, but I would certainly make an exception for this act. In fact, I would hardly consider death with dignity going against nonmaleficence in my personal opinion. If harming the patient means giving the patient a chance to die peacefully with little pain, around loved ones and in a comforting environment, then I have lost all concept of what “harm” even means. If anything, it would be harmful to force a patient to suffer until the end of their life, considering they didn’t ask for that. So no, death with dignity does not challenge my responsibility to uphold nonmaleficence, because I do not believe the two correlate.