Site menu:

 

Survey on chaplaincy and quality of end of life  

The 10th Consultation of the European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy that took place in Estonia in May of 2008 had the theme “From quality to sanctity of human life” and dealt with end of life issues.
As a continuation of the meeting, the members of the Network Committee decided that it would be useful to carry out a small survey regarding how end of life issues are dealt with in diferent countries and chaplaincies. This will allow participant to learn from one another, and serve as a reference source for the bodies that the Network has been collaborating with over the past years, such as the EU Commission for Public Health and the Church and Society Commission of CEC.

The questions that participants were asked to answer are:

 

  1. What are the legal regulations on end of life choices in your country?
  2. What is the view of your church (or the churches you represent) in your country on end of life choices?
  3. What are the main tensions in the chaplains’ general practice concerning quality of end of life? 

The conceptual framework in which these questions have been answered centers around the:

  1. Choices with regard to curative or life-sustaining treatment: whether such treatment is initiated or withheld, continued or withdrawn.
  2. Choices with regard to pain or symptom control and palliative care or sedation: all treatments aimed at maximizing, in an active way, the incurably ill patient’s quality of life and comfort.
  3. Choices with regard to euthanasia and assisted suicide, where lethal medication is purposefully administered.

Replies received from: