Biopolitics in end-of-life care

Autores

  • Walter Guandalini Jr. Universidade Federal do Paraná Centro Universitário Internacional
  • Gustavo Soares Guandalini Gustavo Soares Guandalini is a Cardiovascular Disease Fellow at NYU School of Medicine (New York, NY). He is native from Brazil, where he obtained his MD from the Federal University of Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) and practiced as a Family Physician for two years before moving to the United States. He trained as a Research Fellow in Biophysics at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Washington, DC), followed by Internal Medicine and Chief Residency at the Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center (Washington, DC). During this period, he worked in the Center for Ethics Transforming End-of-life Care Program, sponsored by the Lown Institute RightCare Alliance.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20499/2236-3645.RJP2020v21e125-1759

Resumo

This paper analyzes the biopolitical construction of ethical criteria adopted when providing end-of-life care. The evaluation of how medical knowledge prescriptions are applied to patients’ living bodies, and how legal power prescriptions are applied to health professionals’ living bodies, evidenced that medical practice undergoes a double dilemma: on the one hand, the lack of criteria for the choice of non-curative treatment; on the other, the technological blurring of the demarcation line between life and death. This insecurity turns the hospital environment into a state of exception, where all of us become exposed to the violence of a force-of-law directly applied to our bodies as bare life. Using the Brazilian legislation as a singular starting point, general concepts are discussed reflecting current paradigms in end-of-life care.

Biografia do Autor

Walter Guandalini Jr., Universidade Federal do Paraná Centro Universitário Internacional

Mestre e Doutor em Direito do Estado (UFPR). Professor de História do Direito na Faculdade de Direito da UFPR. Professor no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito - Mestrado do Centro Universitário Internacional (UNINTER). Advogado da Companhia Paranaense de Energia.

Gustavo Soares Guandalini, Gustavo Soares Guandalini is a Cardiovascular Disease Fellow at NYU School of Medicine (New York, NY). He is native from Brazil, where he obtained his MD from the Federal University of Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) and practiced as a Family Physician for two years before moving to the United States. He trained as a Research Fellow in Biophysics at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Washington, DC), followed by Internal Medicine and Chief Residency at the Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center (Washington, DC). During this period, he worked in the Center for Ethics Transforming End-of-life Care Program, sponsored by the Lown Institute RightCare Alliance.

Gustavo Soares Guandalini is a Cardiovascular Disease Fellow at NYU School of Medicine (New York, NY). He is native from Brazil, where he obtained his MD from the Federal University of Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) and practiced as a Family Physician for two years before moving to the United States. He trained as a Research Fellow in Biophysics at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Washington, DC), followed by Internal Medicine and Chief Residency at the Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center (Washington, DC). During this period, he worked in the Center for Ethics Transforming End-of-life Care Program, sponsored by the Lown Institute RightCare Alliance.

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Publicado

2020-01-30

Edição

v. 21 n. 125 (2020)

Seção

Artigos em Língua Estrangeira

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