Meanings of life and death: Reflections of patients in palliative care

Abstract

Palliative care seeks to alleviate the suffering of patients with chronic and life-threatening diseases in the physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions. In the spiritual dimension, it seeks to imbue transcendental aspects, such as life and death, with meaning. Knowing these senses is the objective of this study, which is a qualitative research of exploratory character, and uses semi-structured interviews for data collection and discourse analysis. Four patients were interviewed and three categories of meaning were identified: finitude coping resources; sufferings related to finitude; meanings attributed to life and death. We noticed the greater suffering was not the finitude itself, but what arises from it, such as functional loss, concern for the family and threat of values. The difficulty in talking about death is not necessarily in itself, but in identifying the meaning it has for the person and the underlying sufferings.