PHI 413 Topic 4: Death, Dying, and Grief Tasks
PHI 413 Topic 4: Death, Dying, and Grief Tasks
PHI 413 Assignment: Case Study on Death and Dying
The practice of health care providers at all levels brings you into contact with people from a variety of faiths. This calls for knowledge and understanding of a diversity of faith expressions; for the purpose of this course, the focus will be on the Christian worldview.
Based on “Case Study: End of Life Decisions,” the Christian worldview, and the worldview questions presented in the required topic study materials you will complete an ethical analysis of George’s situation and his decision from the perspective of the Christian worldview.
Provide a 1,500-2,000-word ethical analysis while answering the following questions:
- How would George interpret his suffering in light of the Christian narrative, with an emphasis on the fallenness of the world?
- How would George interpret his suffering in light of the Christian narrative, with an emphasis on the hope of resurrection?
- As George contemplates life with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), how would the Christian worldview inform his view about the value of his life as a person?
- What sorts of values and considerations would the Christian worldview focus on in deliberating about whether or not George should opt for euthanasia?
- Given the above, what options would be morally justified in the Christian worldview for George and why?
- Based on your worldview, what decision would you make if you were in George’s situation?
Remember to support your responses with the topic study materials.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
Topic 4 DQ 1
How often do you engage with or witness death in your work? How has this experience or the lack of it shaped your view of death? Has it gotten easier or harder for you to accept the fact of death? As you explain, include your clinical specialty
I have seen a fair share of deaths, but I regard the first death my most formative one. It was an older man that had been hospitalized for quite some time, he kept going in and out of consciousness, and every time my shift would end, I would pray to see him the next day. I have been trained to expect someone to die, but it’s tough to wrap your head around it, and wasn’t prepared for the reaction of his family. One would think a family would rejoice to have a member of the family to pass away peacefully of old age, he had just turned 92 the week before, lived a happy full life in a tight knit family, had several great grandchildren and was loved to the max. The moment he passed I was standing in the room crowded with family members, and for a moment everyone had stopped breathing along with him. Then there was a uniform, delicate, controlled sound of grief. I quickly realized how delicate and vulnerable human beings are and, somehow, I compared the body of the old man to a cracked drinking cup. The body couldn’t hold his soul anymore, there was no fixing him.
After that experience I have seen people dying in the ER from car accidents, gunshot wounds, falls, aneurism etc., some so traumatic I had to take a yoga class to try to detach my emotions from the passage from life to death, just so I could concentrate on the tasks at hand.
As a nurse in labor/delivery, I have had heartbreaking encounters with death. Strangely enough most deaths are related to the mother, not the child, though both occur with increased occurrence. At times both mother and child did not walk out of the hospital. These, in my opinion, are the most devastating deaths because the whole family is gathered for something that is supposed to bring joy to all, a child that has been loved well before he/she is supposed to take the first breath. While the rest of the world is setting rules to follow to achieve a decline in deaths in a maternity ward, the USA has slowly been falling behind (Young, 2019). As a mother, and a nurse, I found myself avidly reading anything about problems with labor, blood pressure, blood loss, length of delivery, etc., because I believe that if one of us can make a difference, the rest will follow. Self-education, based on the errors of other hospitals, doctors, techniques or just something unexpected, is a better approach than sit back and ignore the problems. Last month I heard of a conference about mortality in childbirth that will be held at the beginning of November in Denver, Co. I had to beg my supervisors to allow me to participate, and I was finally granted the request. It is called Annual Harvey Cohen MD Maternal Morbidity & Mortality Summit and I am excited to participate. As someone said: It takes a village!
I don’t think I will ever be completely passive upon witnessing someone’s death, and I realize that the death of a stranger is easier to process than the one of a loved one, so all I can do is to try to do my best to prevent an untimely death.
Young, A. (2019). Hospitals know how to protect mothers. They just aren’t doing it. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/deadly-deliveries/2018/07/26/maternal-mortality-rates-preeclampsia-postpartum-hemorrhage-safety/546889002/
Topic 4 DQ 2
Reflect on the analysis of the sin of suicide and, thus, euthanasia from the topic readings. Do you agree? Why or why not? Refer to the lecture and topic readings in your response
God gave us life, and some freedom to choose how we want to live it. Every decision we make has a consequence, and our choices should always be weighed and compared to being wrong or right. We were given a set of moral standards, very simple ones, that should be easy to follow, yet most of us commit a type of sin, from gluttony to murder. One of the Ten Commandments specifically states: “thou not shall kill”, and it is not to be read lightly, because it doesn’t just mean that it is a sin to kill another human being, it is a sin to take our own life, to kill ourselves.
Allowing doctors to assist one’s suicide could jeopardize the lives of vulnerable people, it could be incentivized by insurance companies to keep costs down, and denies equality before the law (Anderson, 2015). All these are valid points, because PAS could create chaos and leave doors open to fraud and to the badly intentioned.
I can’t stress enough the amount of Christian teachings I was brought up with, prayers in the morning, thank yous at every meal, prayers of forgiveness before going to sleep, prayers for the sinner, prayers for the poor, prayers for those that won’t pray. And prayers for all the dead, which seemed never ending as a child, especially during the month of November. I clearly remember when a close neighbor committed suicide, I was only 12 years old and I wasn’t allowed to see him. I thought I was deemed too young to be around a dead person, then I found out that it was my grandmother’s wish. The reasoning was simple: he was a sinner, not worthy of God and the gift of live that He bestowed on him. A bad example! That night, in my long ritual of naming every dead person I could recall, I started reciting a prayer for my neighbor, and my grandmother stopped me from finishing his name. He didn’t deserve any prayers because he knew that what he did was wrong, and he wasn’t going to see Jesus, but straight to hell. Pretty shocking response to give to a 12-year-old child!
Suicide is delicate topic, even for us nurses and there are many facets that should be taken in account when presented with this situation. Gilbert Meilaender (2013) explained that suicide and euthanasia are immoral in the eyes of God, because humans are solely characters in this book that God is writing. The characters don’t have the power to change their fate, only the writer can. Yet he goes onto excusing people with mental deficiencies for committing suicide based on the knowledge that they weren’t responsible for their own actions.
I am not a 12-year-old child anymore and I hope I have learned enough in life to make decent choices. While I do not agree with suicide or PAS, I, unlike my grandmother, have empathy for people that fell in such desperation, to crave to end their lives. I pray for them because I am no one to judge them, and because I firmly believe that even my short prayers can make a difference in these “sinners” afterlife.
References:
Anderson, R., (2015). Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/always-care-never-kill-how-physician-assisted-suicide-endangers-the-weak
Meilaender, G. (2013). In Bioethics: A primer for Christians. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/journalofchristiannursing/Citation/2007/10000/BIOETHICS_A_PRIMER_FOR_CHRISTIANS,_SECOND_EDITION.17.aspx
Course Code Class Code Assignment Title Total Points
PHI-413V PHI-413V-O500 Case Study on Death and Dying 200.0
Criteria Percentage Unsatisfactory (0.00%) Less than Satisfactory (65.00%) Satisfactory (75.00%) Good (85.00%) Excellent (100.00%)
Content 70.0%
Suffering and Fallenness of the World 12.0% Analysis of how the man would interpret his suffering in light of the Christian narrative and the fallenness of the world is insufficient or not supported by topic study materials. Analysis of how the man would interpret his suffering in light of the Christian narrative and the fallenness of the world is unclear or vaguely supported by topic study materials. Analysis of how the man would interpret his suffering in light of the Christian…
