Ethical Contributions in Preserving the Dignity of the Terminal Patient

Abstract

The issue of the terminal patient is an ever-present topic in the approaches focused on the real and efficient control on the end of life, while it entails both in theoretical analysis and practical illustrations a wide category of terms, which have not yet reach consensus despite almost five decades of academic debate. Thus, terms such as assisted dying, end of life, terminal illness, terminal care highlight the manners in which technologic and scientific advances allow for the artificial preservation of vital functions in correlation with a series of medical consequences regarding the increase of life expectancy, effects on health and criteria for establishing the death of an individual. The concerns and deep medical, social, economic and legal implications of the patient diagnosed with a terminal illness define through palliative care the objectives and basic tenets emerging from the ethical aim to preserve the dignity of the patient. Control of symptoms, spiritual state and care for the family of the affected individual are involved in life care or life support therapies and appeal to the principle of benefaction. From the point of view of preserving human dignity, benefaction becomes the basis for the elaboration of bioethical criteria intended for the evaluation of the decisions implicated in the management of the terminally ill patient. Since the importance of the dignity of the patient at the end of his or her life cannot be denied, in this paper we aim to identify the ethical attributes which define the concept of dignity, to outline its multidimensional character and the complex nature of this concept.