Indeed, a loss of autonomy or control among patients is often interpreted as a loss of self, and of the sense of dignity. Although the two terms (autonomy and dignity) are sometimes regarded as distinct concepts, this is not always the case in the EOL setting. In the EOL context, another key issue is how the perception of dignity is mediated by the person’s sense of autonomy or control. In the present study, dignity is considered to be a fundamentally intrinsic feature of the human individual, although it is acknowledged that what it entails in practice will depend on how patients see themselves and are seen by others, and also on how the nature of the illness in question affects the person’s life and identity. The second perspective refers to what is called dynamic dignity, that is, a personal quality that is related to people’s perception of themselves and of the context in which they live. From this point of view, dignity is an irrevocable feature of personhood that does not depend on, or vary, according to circumstances.
One is to consider it as something intrinsic and ontological, what some authors refer to as basic dignity. īroadly speaking, there are two ways in which the notion of dignity is evoked. Numerous studies have sought to clarify what is meant by dignity, to identify the variables associated with it, to examine how it is perceived by patients, families, and professionals, and to explore ways of assessing and enhancing it. Safeguarding the dignity of patients at the end of life (EOL) has become a key objective of clinical practice. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: Data are all contained within the paper and in its Supporting Information files.įunding: This study was supported by: the Junior Faculty programme grant, cofinanced by L’Obra Social “La Caixa” (AR): the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grant number: PI14/00263) (CMR JPS AB): Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (aecc)-Catalunya contra el Càncer – Barcelona (CMR JPS AB): WeCare Chair: End-of-life care at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and ALTIMA (AR CMR JPS AB). Received: NovemAccepted: FebruPublished: March 24, 2016Ĭopyright: © 2016 Rodríguez-Prat et al. PLoS ONE 11(3):Įditor: Claudio Moretti, S.G.Battista Hospital, ITALY Citation: Rodríguez-Prat A, Monforte-Royo C, Porta-Sales J, Escribano X, Balaguer A (2016) Patient Perspectives of Dignity, Autonomy and Control at the End of Life: Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography.