“Acompañando a la gente en el último momento de su vida”: reflexiones en torno a la construcción paliativista de la Dignidad en el final de la vida

Abstract

This article’s aim is to analyze the palliative professional construction regarding
Dignity. Anthropological analysis of notions of and about Dignity has had less
development than studies that it considers in an abstract or general manner (mainly
within Philosophy and Bioetics). In this work, the focus is situated in the collective
process of creation of performance, experience, emotion and meaning that try to
dignify life in the social process of dying. My view is centered in the palliative care
(PC) team members’ point of view within an adult cancer hospital. In this manner, I
pay special attention to the conceptualizations and professional performances about
dignity, and also in an undirect way, to the means in which these notions are
decodified, negotiated and transformed by people that experience illness and their
families.