Ethics of End-of-Life Issues 3800-EKZ24-BE-S-OG

The course is focused on the main moral problems of end of life and provides a relevant ethical knowledge (concepts, theories, principles, rules and arguments) as a general framework for interpreting and analysing moral issues arising in terminal care as well as teaches methods of case analysis. The course aims at making students aware of the normative aspects of medical decisions made in terminal care, clarifying the most important philosophical approaches to medico-moral reflection, that is the philosophical context of ethical theories and their practical application as well as normative positions in end-of-life ethics. The course aims at developing the students’ skills in recognizing the moral dimensions of end of life and their ability to think critically about moral issues arising in terminal care. The course develops students’ ability to analyze critically moral arguments, making them able to formulate and support with clear reasoning their medico-moral judgments concerning terminal care.
To sum up: The course aims at: (a) giving students a relevant ethical knowledge of main problems and discussions in terminal care; (b) stimulating their analytical skills and reasoning abilities; (c) enhancing their intellectual sensibility and awareness of the needs of dying patients; (d) enhancing their skills in construction arguments; (e) developing their habit of critical thinking; (f) developing their linguistic skills (B2+level).
Content: Problem of death in analytical philosophy and phenomenology. Evolution of the definition and criteria of death. Dying – changes in the attitudes to death and dying in Western culture according to Ph. Ariès. Is cultural thanatology just the science fiction to the Past? Michel Vovelle analyses of cultural thanatology. The phenomenon of medicalization of death. Dying in post-modernity: liberal pattern of full control and communitarian pattern of peaceful death. The concept of terminal stage and terminal phase. Ethical foundations of medical thanatology. Informed consent in terminal care. Ordinary and extraordinary means. Medical futility. Minimal (basic) means. Principle of double effect and analgesia of terminally ill patients. Palliative sedation. Ethical analyses of commissions and omissions, withholding and withdrawal. Ethical aspects of artificial feeding and hydrating in terminal care. End-of-life controversies. Advance directives. DNR. Quality of life: theories and methods of assessment. Ethical and legal issues concerning euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Palliative care and terminal care. Hospice movement: development of forms of hospice care.