Between sick life and healthy death: orthotanasia in the experience of nurses in an intensive care unit

Abstract

Considering that passive euthanasia is a controversial term with insufficient ethical and legal debates, a research was carried out aiming to know the perception of professional nurses about such practice in the hospital context. It is an exploratory research, based on a qualitative approach, developed in an adult ICU of a public hospital in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, through interviews with five nurses. Semi-directed interviews were conducted from January to March 2008. Ethical aspects involved in the research were appropriately observed. After content analysis, the following categories emerged: the doctor decides; patient is not worth investing the effort; the family participation; death with dignity; and hidden passive euthanasia. Dealing with such a theme as passive euthanasia is an attempt to contextualize its existence and its practice, considering a routine that tries to hide or to mask it, since there is no legal or medical support to its practice. Even though passive euthanasia is considered a new subject, it is, in fact, an ancient practice which takes place in the hospital environment. According to the professionals who were interviewed, it is a viable possibility to treat death as a constant and irremediable process opposed to the extension of human suffering. Professionals involved on ICU assistance should be encouraged to participate in discussions on themes related to death, since talking about it helps to gradually de-stigmatize it and face it in a new way.