Review of Legal Ethics in Applying Palliative Care to Improving the Quality of Life of Patients

Abstract

Palliative care is a treatment for patients who have incurable diseases by optimizing the patient’s quality of life and reducing pain and other symptoms by paying attention to psychological and spiritual aspects. Previous studies have assessed the importance of implementing palliative care in Indonesia because of the high prevalence of incurable diseases such as cancer, heart failure, and other diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Palliative care is a form of medical care and patient comfort that controls the intensity of a disease or slows its progress, whether or not there is hope of recovery. Palliative care does not aim to provide a cure or reverse disease progression. It is an important part of caring for terminal patients, which can be done simply, although their main priority is quality of life and not recovery of the patient from the illness. Most patients come for treatment with a diagnosis of disease in an advanced stage. In such conditions, the patient tends to choose a short but happy life rather than a long life with many limitations. For patients, the only realistic treatment options are pain barriers and palliative care. So palliative care is an effective way to improve the quality of life of patients.
 Keywords: legal ethics, palliative care, patient