Tag Archive for: palliation

Eutanasia

The right to die with dignity

Portugal’s earlier approved euthanasia law – published on the 25th of May, 2023 – is going nowhere.
In fact, it is going ‘’back deep into the drawer’, writes Correio de Manhã, the country’s biggest and most popular newspaper.

According to the approved law, people aged over 18 should be allowed to request assistance in dying if they are terminally ill and in intolerable suffering.
It would only cover those with ‘lasting’ and ‘unbearable’ pain and be applicable to nationals and legal residents only.

However, since the recent May 18 elections, parties in favour of the decriminalisation of medically-assisted death (PS Socialists, IL, BE, Livre e PAN) no longer have the number of MPs required to approve the new law.

Today, the majority of MPs in parliament are those representing AD (an alliance of PSD Social Democrats and CDS Christian Democrats) which has no interest whatsoever in reopening the euthanasia debate whereas the second biggest party – far-right CHEGA – is frontally against the idea.

The euthanasia law was first approved in 2021 in Parliament but never got beyond that – seeing repeated vetoes by both the conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a devout churchgoer and by the Constitutional Court. In a period of four years parliamentarian decisions have been twarted five times.

Moreover, a large number of doctors continues to raise moral objections to carrying out euthanasia, as they do over abortions. Even more poignant in this respect is that palliative care doesn’t get off the ground.

Despite hopeful initiatives, the Palliative Care Association denounced in the beginning of the year that more than 70% of patients do not have timely access to palliation, a value that rises to 90% in the case of children.

With Portugal moving firmly to the right, anyone hoping for a breakthrough in this deeply Catholic country has to wait for an indefinite period of time.

Enjoy your week          Approveite a semana               (pic Público/Sapo)

/by

End-of-life

In Portugal – where palliative care is no priority – a first training course of end-of-life doulas has started last September.
The program covers topics like active listening, symptoms of chronic ailments, nutrition and hydration, post-mortem care and legacy work.

An end-of-life doula is a professional, who guides the dying and opens up the conversation about death and loss. Topics that are often taboo for the dying and their family. Doulas promote family-led, home-based care and their role can supplement and go beyond hospice care. No easy task in a society that tends to react to sadness with a prescription of antidepressants.

The term doula originates from ancient Greece meaning a helping individual; a servant or in extreme cases, a slave. Since the 1960s the term is in use for women who support pregnant mothers during childbirth. Unlike midwives, they do not serve in a medical capacity.

The primary role of the end-of-life doulas is not only to provide emotional, physical and psychological support but also to educate and empower families to exercise their right to care for the dead.
Their work is relatively common in the USA (www.inelda.org), Canada and Brazil and although they are not required to have medical training, many come from the healthcare field.

What happens if the family wants to continue curative care but the patient not?
‘It will be up to the doula to act as an intermediary between the needs of each other, to try to harmonize conflicts’, explains nurse Ana Infante, a palliative care nurse and organizer of the course. ‘There are signs and symptoms that are part of the end-of-life process. It is important to know how to recognize them and reassure the family, identifying those that may be causing the dying person discomfort.’

The work of doulas doesn’t replace that of health professionals and has nothing to do with euthanasia. Doulas do not delay or advance the process of dying: they merely accompany people. This work can be done at home or in hospital as long as the surrounding environment is comfortable, safe and peaceful for the patient.


Aproveite o seu dia                                                     Enjoy your day

 

/by