End of Life Issues

End of Life Issues
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End of life issues
Introduction
As people approach the final stages of their lives, they and their family members are faced with a wide range of decisions varying from simple to extremely difficult ones. The decisions may be social, financial, spiritual or of health nature. The decision making process for the dying person and their family members may be easy if the person at the end of life stage is conscious. However, the end of life decisions is often challenging for terminally sick individuals and their family members. The situation is complicated further by advancement in technology and medical knowledge where options are being developed every day for life care support. The decision whether to terminate the life of the sick, suffering person becomes complex decision to the sick person, the family members and the medical staffs involved. This paper will try to create an in-depth understanding of end of life issues, the approaches, challenges and the ethical issues that guide the process.
Defining End of Life
In past eras, death was believed to be a point in time in an individual life when vital organs in the body stop functioning (Centre of Bioethics University of Minnesota, 2005). This includes the heart, lungs and brains. However, it is normal for the major organs in the body to stop functioning at different time. With the innovation of life support machines and technology that enables transplant of the major organs such as the heart and kidneys in the 20th century, the definition of death became complex. Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) was set in 1981 to establish a uniform death policy (Centre of Bioethics University of Minnesota, 2005). The goal of the commission was to eradicate the confusion of pronouncing death. It also aimed at coming up with solution of solving issues relating to removal of life support machines and organ donation. The commission defined death as an occurrence in an individual life when the heart, lungs, the brain and the brain stem permanently ceases to function. As a result, the end of life should be aimed at ensuring a "good death" for both the dying person and the loved ones.
Approaches to End of Life Care
These are initiatives that are established to ensure a good death for a terminally ailing person (James & Blevins, 2008). They ensure quality of life for both the ailing and the loved ones. They also aimed at ensuring life continues well after the demise of the sick person. Such approaches include hospice care, palliative care and advance directives.
Hospice care is an approach that brings together doctors, nurses, social workers and other medical professionals to form a caring team (Centre of Bioethics University of Minnesota, 2005). The main goal of the team is to ensure comfort to the terminally ailing patient during their final days. The team emphasizes on all aspects of good death, such as pain control, symptom management and physically comforting the patient. As a result, the hospice team is able to support both the patient and the family members to handle the situation of death. The hospice team has no specific location where they can care for the ailing patient (Bismarck, ...