Law of Ukraine on Palliative Care: to be or not to be

Abstract

The author has conducted an analysis of the laws on palliative care acting in foreign countries:(Italy, Spain, Germany, Slovakia, France), determined their peculiarities, which areconcordant for a national law, the necessity of which has grown in Ukraine. In particular, thegiven peculiarities include: 1) a value-oriented focus of the laws (quality of life, informed consentetc.); 2) the litmus paper — the confirmation of human dignity, anchored in the internationalstandards; 3) the struggle for life «in the boundaries»; 4) an appropriate pain relief as akey algorithm of medical assistance; 5) the foundations of the law constitute a conceptual-categoricalapparatus.The author has formed a mosaic of the strategy of a special law through the prism of a preambula,the definitive-categorial apparatus and the principles, as well as the author's view ofthe content of the act. The author hallmarked that the structure of the domestic palliativecare law should contain, inter alia: the legal status of palliative patients, the legal representativesof palliative patients, the members of their families, as well as the legal status of medicalemployees, which fulfill the provision of palliative care. The author outlined, that amongthe rights of palliative patients, the following possibilities should be concordant to be included:the refusal from medical interventions, an advance directive, the respect to human dignity,obtaining medical information and the refusal of obtaining it, right to autonomy and voluntaryinformed consent to a medical intervention. The author underlined that the palliativecare law should contain a distinct chapter, dedicated to the peculiarities of providing palliativecare to children, as specific subjects of receiving such care. The author focused the attentionto the fact that distinct chapters would have to regulate the legal status of palliative careproviders and their interaction, and contain the division of powers, since the interdisciplinarityof the sphere would combine two institutions of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and theMinistry of Social Policy of Ukraine, various institutions and establishments.The author justified the necessity of determining the key definition of the research sphereprecisely as palliative care, without the hospice one.