给予老年人体面的照护：为什么尊严很重要——欧洲经验

在医学哲学领域以及相关领域中,“尊严”的概念越来越受到关注。最近,在生物伦理学的国际会议中很流行这个概念。同时,在欧洲的许多国家中,“尊严”的概念也被引入到有关卫生保健的国家立法和政策制定中。本文将从检验一个在关于尊严和老年人的欧洲计划中产生的尊严理论模型开始。然后根据参与这个计划的老年人和卫生及社会保健的专业人员那里得到的经验进行研究,有6个国家参加这项研究。结果证明尊严是一个非常重要的事情,尤其是对那些弱势群体来说。本文结论认为对于虚弱的老年人,相对于那种强调自主的医学伦理,长期的保健需要注重一个范围更为广泛的伦理内容。

Decent Care for Older People:why digity matters:The European Experence

The notion of dignity is one of the central concepts receiving increasing attention in the philosophy of medicine and related areas. The concept has of late acquired widespread currency in international conventions within bioethics. It has also entered into national legislation and policy formulation in relation to health care in many European countries. To begin with an examination of a theoretical model of dignity developed within a European project on Dignity and Older Europeans. It then explores the experience of dignity by older people and health and social care professionals, based on results from the 6 countries participating in the project and demonstrates that dignity is important especially to those who are most vulnerable.To onclude that long-term care for frail old people needs to refocus on a broader ethic than the dominant one of autonomy, which as Pullman (1999) claims, assumes that the highest good is to maintain independence, and that dependence is a harm.