| Abstract |
The end of life has often been the subject of conflicts in the past, and is still a thorny issue to be explored, both scientifically and morally. There are two basic approaches to medical practice related to end-stage care, hospital and palliative care. In the present study, emphasis is placed on the care that palliative care can provide to patients with end-stage cancer, trying to highlight the main aspects of the bioethical dilemmas faced by end-stage cancer patients. To this end, the following individual objectives are set: a) if the choice of voluntary euthanasia is justified according to Kant, b) the study of the main approaches to end-patient care and c) bioethical dilemmas on pain management, its maintenance, by accelerating the death and the advanced directives.
In this work I have tried in to answer whether, according to Kant, the claim to accelerate death or, alternatively, the demand for a dignified end of life should be respected and whether we could form a Kantian framework of justification and fulfillment of end-stage patient’s desire so that his martyrdom ends as painlessly as possible without, however, breaking the moral principles of the physician, whose attention is, of course, focusing on palliative care.
In an effort to avoid ethical disagreements related to the retention and discontinuation of health care and to encourage the use of appropriate treatment for end-stage patients, many advocates for patients' rights and “good deaths” suggest the use of advanced directives. These aim to maintain individual autonomy, respect individual’s choice and prevent situations where the patient is given treatment that he or she does not want. Since they include critical decisions about end-of-life care, there are moral concerns about their use.
An integral part of the care provided to patients with end-stage cancer is also the decision to stop unnecessary medical interventions. Any intervention in a patient with end-stage cancer should be evaluated in relation to the patient's goals. Any intervention that does not promote the patient's goals should be eliminated. However, this simple advice is difficult to follow in real-life practice. In conclusion, palliative care and intensive medical care are not mutually exclusive choices, but should be rather viewed as complementary approaches. One thing is for sure; no matter how much research is conducted, the discussion is inexhaustible in terms of bioethics. And this is because there are no universally accepted ethics, especially when it comes to human life issues.
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Βιοηθικά διλήμματα τέλους ζωής σε ασθενείς που πάσχουν από καρκίνο
