Death with dignity refers to the patient’s choice to end their life based on poor quality of life from a medical standpoint from terminal illness or imminent death. Towards the end of a patient’s life due to a disease process, they may have significant pain and suffering, as well as a lack of dignity related to their inability to take care of themselves at that stage. Many patients have to be cleaned up by caregivers, cannot use the bathroom on their own, cannot move independently or feed themselves at that stage of life due to a terminal disease process. The patient may view that as an extremely poor quality of life and as an embarrassing process so they may want their code status changed to DNR so that they can have the most peaceful death possible. If a patient has a terminal illness such as a type of stage 4 cancer, in some states they have the option to consider physician assisted suicide through taking a cocktail of medications that would essentially kill them in the least painful and most peaceful way possible.

Death with dignity does not really challenge my beliefs in regards to nursing ethics because it is also the nurses responsibility to honor the patient’s wishes through providing client centered care and to treat their pain. In the cases where the client is terminally ill and desiring an end to their potential suffering as well as pain through physician assisted suicide, I would be happy to provide the patient with more information regarding that practice. My personal goal as a nurse would be to provide a patient who is on comfort measures with the most peaceful, pain free and dignified death that I possibly could provide. I would also want to honor the clients wishes as to how they would want that time to go to the best of my ability and within my scope of practice.