ABSTRACT
Health care professionals are faced with many challenging ethical dilemmas and controversies that are difficult to resolve in today’s workforce. Among these issues is the controversial “right to die” debate. Patients have many reasons to die but first and foremost are when they lose hope and dignity. The patient’s right to die will be examined from the perspective of a nurse who is a Cancer Center Coordinator. Ethical principles that must be considered are beneficence and autonomy. Compassion & Choices works to improve access to a full range of end-of-life options for terminally ill adults, including access to better pain management, palliative care, enrollment in hospice, and aid in dying. Compassion & Choices encourages people to document their wishes in an advance directive to ensure their end-of-life decisions are known. Communicating with family during this process is of utmost importance.
