Case Study
The case study demonstrates a role related and ethical conundrum when the nurse is taking care of an end stage aggressive lung cancer patient, Mr. Wilson, who expressed suicidal intentions to the nurse and asked to keep the secret from his family and the hospital staff.
If the nurse knows of Mr. Wilsons’ plan for rational suicide, would the nurse be obligated to intervene? If so, what actions could the nurse take at this point? Does a nurse have the right to try to stop a person from committing rational suicide (to act in the best interest of the patient)? Is a nurse supposed to support the person’s autonomous decision to commit rational suicide? even when that decision is morally and religiously incompatible with the nurse’s perspective? What is the nurse role?
