Abstract

NARDINELLI-BERNARDES DE CARVALHO, Patricia Feiz  and  FISCHER, Marta Luciane. The tenuous limits between the right to live and the right to die: an academic, legal, and bioethics perspective of palliative care in pets. Rev. Bioética y Derecho [online]. 2023, n.58, pp.243-269.  Epub Sep 25, 2023. ISSN 1886-5887.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1344/rbd2023.58.42292.

Palliative care (PC) of pets is an emerging theme in veterinary medicine constituting a therapeutic alternative for early euthanasia. Our objective was to map of the perspective, criteria, procedures and ethical and scientific references of PC and euthanasia in pets, testing the hypothesis of differences in the perspectives of euthanasia and PC, as well as between the national and international scenarios. Thus, an integrative bibliographic review of scientific production and a cut of jurisprudential analysis of legal reflexes in veterinary medical activity was performed. The integrative review resulted in 535 articles, of which 43 complied with the inclusion criteria, agree with 800 actions, which 30% were related to indemnity actions against veterinary services. The data obtained, under the profile proposed in the research, allowed to characterize the scientific approach of PC and euthanasia, as well as launch interpretative trails of how functional aspects and prospects of application can subsidize the decisions of the veterinary medical team and those responsible for animals. However, to overcome the limitations and the consolidation of PC potentialities, a multidimensional effort is required including the normative, technical, social and ethical sphere. We discern the reception of the issue in the agenda of bioethics suggesting that it is performed in the multidisciplinary space of the veterinary hospital bioethics committee to assist in the deliberation of conflict decisions considering the right to provide a dignified life to the animal, and consequently, mitigating compromising vulnerabilities of the right to live and die.

Keywords : bioethics; non-human animals; palliative care; animal law; euthanasia.

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