A “Boa Morte” de Bacon

Abstract

Euthanasia or “good death”, in the early seventeenth century, became part of the field of medical ethics through the English philosopher, Francis Bacon. He advocated that euthanasia, as “sweet and peaceful death” of the sick, should be sought by the physicians, with their care, and disapproved the abandonment, as determined by the Hippocratic tradition. The word euthanasia underwent a change in its Baconian sense, in the nineteenth century, when it came to mean death inten­tionally provoked as a way to achieve “good death.” Palliative medicine, however, represents the realization of current medicine regarding the commitment not to abandon the terminally ill, and to the effective search for a good death through care, as Francis Bacon defended.