Palliative Care

Abstract

"Palliative care has been discussed in various guidelines published by the SAMS over the past few years. The definitions are not uniform, the understanding of palliative care can differ and its importance in medical practice remains controversial. The SAMS therefore decided to draw up separate medical-ethical guidelines especially for this particular topic. Besides the successes, the developments and advances that have been made in medicine also lead to an increase of various complex medical situations. Increasing specialisation sometimes leads to a fragmented view of things as well as of modes of treatment. This involves the risk that one in fact loses the focus on the patient’s quality of life and his or her suffering. Primarily, quality of life is not a medical concept only. It should be understood and defined in the context of the patient’s case history; this means that it is the patient’s point of view, which is decisive. Without losing sight of the mental, social and spiritual aspects, the aim of palliative care is to give patients with incurable, life-threatening or chronically progressive diseases as good a quality of life as possible throughout the course of their illness, until they die. This principle applies particularly in neonatology, intensive-care medicine, geriatrics and psychiatry. The aim of the following guidelines is to encourage palliative care in everyday medical practice, in all fields of medicine, but also in situations were therapeutic options are still practicable. Their objective is not to establish a new medical speciality, but mainly to encourage an attitude, which recognises the limitations of medicine and helps to face an inevitable death as well as the feelings of helplessness, often associated with this."