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's role?
Sample Solution