Nursing and the Law
Legal and moral obligations are not new to nurses. The Nurse Practice Act, a legal statute regulating nursing, are and the professional code of ethics are the foundations of nursing practice. Similarly, nurses are confronted with complex moral and legal questions on a regular basis when caring for dying patients: questions such as when does death occur? Does an individual have a right to choose death? Is there a difference between letting a person die and taking measures to hasten death? Do to you disclose a terminal diagnosis to a patient? These are just a few of the ethical and legal issues in contemporary nursing.