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Problems in the Care of the Terminally Ill

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Textbook of Healthcare Ethics

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Summary

In summary, there are certain critical considerations this chapter has tried to sketch. Among these are cultural and historical differences in thinking about death and the stage of dying; the difference between life as a biological and life as a cognitive, self-realizing, and self-actualizing state and the ethical implications such considerations may have; various forms of acognitive states; problems of limiting therapy and of artificial feeding; suicide and euthanasia; and problems of futility. Central to all of these issues is the issue of orchestrating death and in so doing communicating with patients and with their families. Healthcare professionals-no matter what their role or area of practice-should seek to have an ongoing dialogue with their patients and with their patients’ families. If they do this, if they share their fallibility, their humanity, and their agony with the patient and with their patient’s families (instead of acting like remote gods), many of these issues will be much easier to deal with than they often are today.

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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(2002). Problems in the Care of the Terminally Ill. In: Textbook of Healthcare Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46801-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46801-8_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-45240-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-46801-8

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