BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This is a theoretical research in books and documents on the subject, faced to the historical context and the current situation of issues related to palliative care in the medical practice. Our aim was to evaluate general and medical societies thinking evolution about palliative care, looking for a consistent foundation on which to build arguments able to meet current bioethical standards. CONTENTS: The general subject is introduced, followed by literature analysis stressing introductory and historical aspects, the evolution and definitions of palliative care and orthothanasia, with ethical and bioethical follow up, followed by a discussion on bioethical principles applied to the subject. CONCLUSION: Palliative care ideology is to assist people in their final stage of life, as human beings, promoting chronic and terminal patients' well being and dignity and their possibility of not being dispossessed of the final moment of their lives, but rather living their own death.
Bioethics; Death; Medical Ethics; Palliative care