Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Feb 2:9:1178224216684831.
doi: 10.1177/1178224216684831. eCollection 2017.

The Exercise of Autonomy by Older Cancer Patients in Palliative Care: The Biotechnoscientific and Biopolitical Paradigms and the Bioethics of Protection

Márcio Niemeyer-Guimarães  1   2 , Fermin Roland Schramm  1
Affiliations
Review

The Exercise of Autonomy by Older Cancer Patients in Palliative Care: The Biotechnoscientific and Biopolitical Paradigms and the Bioethics of Protection

Márcio Niemeyer-Guimarães et al. Palliat Care. .

Abstract

Toward the end of life, older cancer patients with terminal illness often prefer palliative over life-extending care and also prefer to die at home. However, care planning is not always consistent with patients' preferences. In this article, discussions will be centered on patients' autonomy of exercising control over their bodies within the current biotechnoscientific paradigm and in the context of population aging. More specifically, the biopolitical strategy of medicine in the context of hospital-centered health care control and of the frail condition of cancer patients in the intensive care unit will be considered in terms of the bioethics of protection. This ethical principle may provide support to these patients by ensuring that they receive appropriate treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial, and spiritual problems in an attempt to focus attention on the values of the ill person rather than limiting it to the illness.

Keywords: aged; bioethics of protection; biotechnoscience; palliative care; personal autonomy; terminally ill.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Disclosures and Ethics As a requirement of publication, author(s) have provided to the publisher signed confirmation of compliance with legal and ethical obligations, including but not limited to the following: authorship and contributorship, conflicts of interest, privacy and confidentiality, and (where applicable) protection of human and animal research subjects. The authors have read and confirmed their agreement with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship and conflict of interest criteria. The authors have also confirmed that this article is unique and not under consideration or published in any other publication and that they have permission from rights holders to reproduce any copyrighted material. Any disclosures are made in this section. The external blind peer reviewers report no conflicts of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. World Health Organization. Cancer. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/. 2015. Accessed July 15, 2016.
    1. Thiery G, Azoulay E, Darmon M, et al. Outcome of cancer patients considered for intensive care unit admission: a hospital-wide prospective study. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23:4406–4413. - PubMed
    1. Soares M, Terzi RG, Piva JP. Thematic series: end-of-life care and the terminally ill patient at the intensive care unit. Rev Bras Ter Intensiva. 2007;19:357–358. - PubMed
    1. Schramm FR. Are there good reasons for fearing biotechnoscience? Rev Bioet. 2010;4:189–197.
    1. Soares M, Terzi RG, Piva JP. End-of-life care in Brazil. Intens Care Med. 2007;33:1014– 1017. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources