Medical Ethics and Meaning at End of Life

End-of-life issues, including fear of dying, have been recognized as a factor hindering psychosocial functioning in elderly populations.

As people age, many focus with increasing intensity on the issues they face as elderly members of society and as people facing end-of-life decision-making. The inevitability of death does not detract from the onset of death anxiety.

An emerging strategy is the use of existential philosophical principles in the creation of an operational psychoanalytic praxis. Because end-of-life issues often result in the desire by individuals to confront their existence (existential philosophy), the application of an existential psychotherapeutic approach has been introduced as a part of existing research.

This has led to the identification of "death fear" as a major development in the presence of end-of-life assessments. An operational psychoanalytic model that addresses the issue of the fear of death is a major development.

The underlying belief shared by researchers is that fear is inherent for both doctors and patients and requires understanding and compassion on both sides of the equation. This research study is designed to assess the models or psychoanalytical praxes introduced when addressing the needs of elderly individuals and to evaluate both the historical context in which they were formed and the support mechanisms for their continuation.