Bioethical reflections on the end-of-life care

Abstract

The influence of technological pragmatism on the health care offered to critically ill patients, especially to those who are at the end of their lives, makes most of them end up in intensive care units. As we advocate a more humanized care for these people, we have prepared this article, which proposes a bioethical reflection on this matter. The text is divided into three parts: first, we discuss the reality of intensive care units in Brazil, based on the resolution of the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine that regulates medical practice in intensive care units (Res. No. 2,156/16); second, we compare some aspects of the end-of-life care in 4 different countries: the USA, Japan, Italy and Brazil; finally we analyze euthanasia and assisted suicide, considering the technical and moral arguments presented by the American bioethicist Dr. Ezequiel Jonathan Emmanuel.