Families and End of Life Care

Abstract

In clinical practice, patients are much more relational embedded than we think and in common analysis of issues in medical ethics that tend to be conducted from an individual moral perspective. Patients live in relation with each other, call it a family, kinship or whatever. If we are to give credit to these relational moral experiences, then we require a theoretical relational perspective. In this chapter I will argue that when thinking about moral decisions at the end of life, we need to take a family ethical perspective. Families matter, and they matter when it comes to end of life decisions. Families are often intensely involved caring for their family member at the end of life, and rightly so. At the same time, their involvement raises some serious moral questions, three of which I will discuss: (1) respect of autonomy of the patient, (2) the meaning of suffering and (3) issues on justice in family care.