A father’s request.

The March Reflections essay in AJN is by a nurse whose terminally ill 92-year-old father asked her to help him legally end his own life under the requirements of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. The short essay is intimate, informative, and honest. Here’s a brief excerpt from near the end:

Although I miss my father terribly, I have no regrets. Mostly, I am thankful for his strength and courage, his clear-mindedness, and his willingness to work with me to repair our relationship. I am also thankful that nursing prepared me for the role of nurse advocate and taught me how to ‘be with’ a person at the end of life, even when that person was my father.

By Barbara Hranilovich for AJN.

Death With Dignity laws.

It can’t be easy for a nurse, whose job usually focuses on restoring patients’ health and preserving their lives, to help a family member die in this way. Nor is the process without challenges: the requirements of Death with Dignity laws are rigorous, layered with checks and double-checks to guard against potential abuses.

Death with Dignity Laws permitting “aid-in-dying” or “physician-assisted dying”—terms now preferred by advocates to the older “assisted suicide,” since the word suicide has powerful negative connotations—now exist in five states and Washington, D.C.

We hope you’ll read “Death with Dignity (and Love),” which will be free until the end of March, and let us know your thoughts or related experiences.