An Sist Sanit Navar
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Aim. To analyse the accounts of the relatives of patients who died during one year in a hospital in Navarre, within a study of the quality of care for the dying. Method. ⋯ The lack of emotional support perceived by the relatives is also important. Conclusions. Besides the numerical variables contained in the survey, we believe that the narrative that a survey can contain provides key information for the analysis of care quality.
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Dignity should not be confused with the unbecoming conditions that a person can find himself in due to external situations or disease. The person/patient in a terminal situation has human dignity, which must be respected not because he/she is a terminal patient but simply because he/she is a person. But it is true that in terminal situations dignity can be particularly threatened. Nonetheless, one must not deduce from the criterion of respecting dignity the conclusion of prolonging biological life at all costs, but instead that of guaranteeing the best quality of living during the process of dying and of worthily accompanying the person who is approaching death by helping him to accept this.