Introduction: Ethics in Nursing Autonomy as One of the Key Ethical Values Though autonomy is not listed in some of the ethics philosophies (Faden, Kass & Goodman, 2012), it is mentioned quite often in the virtue ethics domain as one of the basic values that a democratic society must incorporate into its framework as a basis for interpersonal relationships. Particularly, autonomy is interpreted as the promotion of the patient with an ability to choose their own. In virtue ethics, the concept of autonomy is identified as “an important moral constraining principle” (Gillon, 2014, p. 3), though some scholars claim that it is “given excessive weight” (Gillon, 2014, p. 3) in the contemporary ethics-related studies. Significance of Autonomy in Healthcare Among the key ethical values that a nurse must uphold in critical cases, autonomy takes a rather significant spot. According to the official definition provided by the American Nurses Association (ANA), patient’s autonomy is typically identified as “agreement to respect another’s right to self-determine a course of action; support of independent decision making” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1) It would be wrong to claim that autonomy is the focal point of nursing ethics. Instead, the phenomenon shares an equal amount of significance with other essential issues: “A medical ethicist, for example, needs to be not merely benevolent, kind, and a respecter of autonomy, but also knowledgeable about medicine or, at the very least, in excellent communication with those who are” (Swanton, 2013, p. 665). A Response from an APRN Justifying the Choice of an APRN The principle of autonomy can be used to justify the behavior of an APRN in case of facing an issue such as the end of life dilemma. Growing increasingly important with the introduction of new healthcare tools for assisting elderly people and the reconsideration of the process of healthcare provision to the latter, the end of life dilemma poses a rather tricky choice in front of an APRN; particularly, a nurse has to decide whether an elderly person, who is practically incapable of taking care of themselves, should be taken to a hospice or a nursing home to be provided with the corresponding services. The specified issue has become all the more significant with the adoption and the further promotion of the Medicare reform. According to the latter, patients are not going to receive financial support from the state government unless specific illnesses are addressed in the course of a treatment (Stevenson et al., 2013). The so-called Prospective Payment Systems (PPS), therefore, cannot guarantee that the choice made by the APRN will be based on the needs of the patient and not the financial benefit of the institution. Additionally, the option of remaining at home deserves to be mentioned as one of the choices that the patient is free to make. The specified option can be viewed as the issue of the ultimate controversy, as the patient refuses from the services provided by the corresponding healthcare services and chooses to die. As a result, a nurse faces the dilemma of either respecting the patient’s choice and, therefore, doom the patient to death, or going against the patient’s will, yet preserving their life. Therefore, the principle of autonomy as the ba