Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1/2010

Living will and palliative medicine

Patient autonomy, facing the provision of health care services, usually will be expressed in terms of informed consent. Until now this autonomy can not be prolonged beyond his or her physical and psychical possibility and ability to decide about him or herself. The paper is discussing in particular the ethical issues arising in palliative medicine with applying patient’s living will and will encourage the legal initiative regarding the adopting a living will act in Slovakia.

Keywords: living will, informed consent.