End of Life, Euthanasia, Complexity

Abstract

The problems posed by the end-of-life and in particular the controversy between the recourse to palliative care
and euthanasia cannot continue to be subjected to society in the form of ethics of conviction which would not
integrate various realities of social practices, including those experienced by healthcare professionals. The arguments
which condition the assessment that one can make are often dependent on complex clinical situations. Two movements
also prove to be necessary, the first being the deconstruction of reality or decomposition into levels or different
spheres, the second being ethical reflection. Indeed, thought can then lean towards supporting of specificities of
these various levels, which then makes it possible to feed an ethical critical analysis starting from the tensions
developed by their various presences. It is a question of taking as a starting point a reasoning based on another
logic than the aristotelician one, logic which admits in particular that two contrary elements, even opposite, can
coexist at the same time and in the same place. It is the rule of thirds included.
From this last point, the tensions deployed by the various levels of reality considered can make it possible
particularly to consider the recourse by the expert to an exception of euthanasia. Such an argumentative approach
makes it possible to profit, only then, of creations of thoughts which can be independent of the ideologies. Thus,
the various possible actions could be distinguished from those which among them would be feasible.
An multidisciplinary ethical debate – to which any citizen in a democratic model of these confrontations of
different realities is invited – aims that each one may built his own opinions which can be dependent on precise
situations. It is also in decisions which take into account an ecology of the action that actions (in particular exception
of euthanasia) could be controlled by moral targeting or an ethics particular to societynso that the values of anyone
humane, of dignity and of freedom can avoid that certain actions by healthcare professionals be qualified adrift