Pascual Valdez

Bioethics and Dignified Death Pascual Valdez

The vertiginous development of intensive care medicine during the last decades with the incorporation of advanced information and technology, as well as an inadequate use of resources, raises in Intensive Care Units (ICU) in Argentina ethical and legal problems, at the time of decision making, of very difficult management. The aim of this research was to learn about perceptions, beliefs and behaviors of health team members involved in end-of-life processes. A qualitative research was carried out with semi-structured interviews to 20 actors (critical care professionals, medical clinic, oncology, emergencies, transplants, mental health, heads of these services, presidents of scientific societies, coordinators of ethics committees and teachers of bioethics from different medical schools) considered key informants.