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Philosophical Bases for Nursing Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

Margot Joan Fromer
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Extract

Nurses have traditionally encouraged people to live, regardless of the meaning or consequences of continued life for the client. Despair profound enough to lead to a suicide attempt is viewed as an illness that must be cured. Nurses, as well as physicians, subscribe to the maxim primum non nocere (first, do no harm), although it may not be as clearly articulated in the canons of the nursing profession as it is in those of medicine. Nurses, for the most part, operate under the belief that suicide is always both mentally unhealthy and morally wrong; thus all efforts are made to prevent suicide. The idea that life is good and worthwhile and must be preserved at all costs applies to a wide variety of clients, including those who engage in behaviors that will probably lead to serious illness or death (e.g., overeating, smaoking, and suicide).

Type
The Suicidal Client
Information
Nursing Law & Ethics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1981

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References

1.Greenberg, D.F., Involuntary Psychiatric Commitment to Prevent Suicide, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 49(2-3):246 (May-June 1974).Google Scholar
2.AQUINAS, T., SUMMA THEOLOGICA. Part II-III, Ques. 64, Art. 5.Google Scholar
3.Hume, D., On Suicide in BEAUCHAMP AND PERLIN. editors, ETHICAL ISSUES IN DEATH AND DYING (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1978).Google Scholar
4.It should be noted that not all persons who commit suicide do so out of a decision to hurt those who love them, but many do.Google Scholar
5.Beauchamp, XL., Suicide in REGAN, editor. MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH: NEW INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY (Random House, New York, 1980).Google Scholar
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7.Mill, J.S., On Liberty in UTILITARIANISM (New American Library, New York, 1974), p. 135.Google Scholar
8.Greenberg, supra note 1, at 243-45.Google Scholar
9.Only one percent of all suicide attempted try again within a year after their first attempt.Google Scholar
10.An alternative rationale, and probably more accurate, is that health professionals have privilege to treat unconscious persons because this is seen to be consistent with the desires of the vast majority of them. If, however, it later can be demonstrated that this person would in fact reject the treatment that is “saving his life” — the question of substituted judgment — then the treatment should be terminated if we are to protect the patient's autonomy. See Annas, G.J., Reconciling Quintan and Saikewicz: Decision-Making for the Terminally III Incompetent, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF LAW & MEDICINE 4(4):367–402 (Winter 1979).Google Scholar