End of Life Medical Issues Research Assignment Paper

End of Life Medical Issues
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Institutional affiliation
End of Life Medical Issues
Introduction
End of life medical care means taking care not only of the elderly who are in the last stages of their lives, but also those who terminally ill and are also in worse conditions. Continuum of care is the best method of providing medical assistance to these people (that is the elderly and the terminally ill) because by doing so one looks at all the factors affecting them. In the continuum of care, the caregivers integrate themselves into the lives of the patients and look at all the aspects of their lives to find out the cause of the illness. Terminal illnesses can be accelerated by small social issues and conditions for instance stress, and it is important to ensure that patients have minimal stress levels. The utilitarianism theory suggests that the ends justify the means. This means that an action can only be considered right or wrong because of the consequences associated with it. It continues to add that the primary goal of an action is to promote happiness and if an action does the opposite, it cannot be considered right. John Stuart Mill, a great philosopher, argues that an action can only be considered good if it promotes happiness and wrong if it tends to reverse the joy. In the continuum of care, an action should also be judged based on its outcome. An elderly patient should not be forced to go to a home for the elderly if they can take care of themselves or have family members to do so. However, some relatives see the elderly as burdens, therefore, subjecting them to the homes. The terminally ill should be offered the most suitable form of treatment for them. Different people have diverse reactions to medicine, and it is for this reason that they should be provided the most appropriate treatment and not forced to use the traditional forms of treatment.
Utilitarianism features
It is important to comprehend that they are three types of the utilitarianism theory; first is the act utilitarianism which states that actions are only judged by the outcomes and does not follow any absolute rule, second is the rule utilitarianism which allows a few rules to be followed. However, they must be socially acceptable in the community, for instance, do not kill. Finally, there is Preference Utilitarianism which suggests that an act should be in the way the involved person prefers unless that of others outweighs the preferences of the affected individual. ("Examine the key features of utilitarianism and its strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism - A-Level Religious Studies & Philosophy - Marked by Teachers.com", 2017) The first one argues that an action should only be judged whether it was right or wrong based on the consequences and not the motive. At times the motive of doing something may not seem to be the right one in the eyes of many people, but the outcome is acceptable to everyone. The reasons for some actions may not be apparent and sometimes may even be negative, but if the outcomes positive or causes happiness as explained by John Stuart, then it is right(Arntzenius, 2014). A good example is whereby a family might opt to take their loved one to an Institute for the elderly because of various reasons. On a...