Therapeutic obstinacy: When medical intervention hurts human dignity

Abstract

The possibilities offered by technoscience turned therapeutic obstinacy into a frequent occurrence. Seeking to avoid this practice, health professionals experience ethical dilemmas of maintenance or suspension of treatments considered useless. This study describes the health professional’s perception of dysthanasia and reflects on bioethical aspects involved in issues inherent to human beings. This is an integrative literature review carried out from articles published in the scientific databases SciELO and BVSalud, from 2010 to 2020. Palliative care and bioethical principles are the main allies for the recovery of a patient’s dignity, requiring specific legislation to support the professional and the patient. Dysthanasia consists of prolonging the life of patients considered incurable, which, in addition to not being in accordance with the principle of beneficence, results in maleficence due to exposure of the patient to a high incidence of pain and discomfort.