Ethical and Legal Solution

      Ethical and legal solutions may not always seem like the easiest decisions to make. However, as medical professionals we have a responsibility to keep the patient safe. Ethical and legal safeguards are put into place so that we can make sure that these things happen; whether we agree with the reasoning behind the solution or not. 

   Ms. Woods could have handled this situation in many different ways. She could have looked into the laws and regulations of the scope of practice for a nurse in Oregon; while also looking up what the law on Physician Assisted Suicide stated. She could have looked into the ethical principles for nursing and known which ones she would have been in violation of wrong-doing. While we may think we know what is best for the patient, and while we may agree that the patient has the ultimate choice; there are times when we don’t have the option to choose. In this case, Ms. Woods should not have relied solely upon the physician whom she was working with, she should have done research on the topic herself, and she herself should have gotten a second opinion on what she should have done.