My life: bioethics, cinema and end of life care

Abstract

Palliative care should be understood from a broader perspective rather than the notion of palliative medicine, offering, from an interdisciplinary approach, the required care to address the multiple dimensions of experience suffered by patients and family members facing a terminal disease. This article will assess the fundamental concepts of a patient-centered care, when it involves a progressive disease without known therapeutic alternatives. The movie My life will be used as an example through the text to compare, contrast and evidence the main ideas. There is a moment through the treatment, where it seems to be "nothing else to do", palliative care provides support, with special attention to assertive communication that facilitates family and personal confrontation in a situation of physical, mental and emotional suffering. A fundamental strategy to address these feelings is a prompt intervention, by helping advance planning of decisions about care, and adapting efforts in order to optimize the quality of life of the patient and his family. It also supports the reorientation of therapeutic interventions and considers alternatives such as sedation at the end of life as an option to control refractory symptoms.