Abstract

BIASOLI, Luis  and  FONTOURA, Adriana Alves da. Evolution of bioethical perspectives on anticipating the end of life. Conjectura: filos. e Educ. [online]. 2023, vol.28, e023041. ISSN 2178-4612.  https://doi.org/10.18226/21784612.v28.e023041.

The anticipation of the end of life has always been a debated theme in the history of medicine and philosophy, and lately, also in bioethics. Given that, nowadays, there is a great evolution in the clinical treatment of patients diagnosed with vegetative state, due to the enormous technological advances in the health and medical-hospital areas, which have made it possible to better preserve and prolong human life, this article aims, in the light of bioethical principles – autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence – to study the possible impacts of classification changes in medical literature of chronic disorders of consciousness. Firstly, an analysis will be made following the historicalcritical method of the following concepts: patients in vegetative state or unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and minimally conscious state. The emblematic cases of the patients Terri Schiavo and Nancy Cruzan are paradigmatic, to illustrate how the medical community, by means of a mature and responsible bioethical reflection, and using recent advances in neurological clinical diagnoses can have a better adequacy in the ethicalmoral decisions and judgments regarding the anticipation of the end of life with more reasoned and equanimous responses. It is concluded, aware of the limits of the article, that the progress of science, allied to contemporary technology, allows a new look on the future of critically ill patients, without obscurantist nihilism. It is known that the principles of bioethics, without disregarding other sources, increasingly subsidize the serious and systematic reflection on anticipating the end of life, especially with the advances in medical conquests of the XXI century.

Keywords : Vegetative state; Coma; Bioethics; End of life; Terri Schiavo.

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