2. Language and Reality at the End of Life Raphael Cohen-Almagor University of Haifa, ISRAEL

3. Every Profession Has Its Keywords That Are Important to Help Categorize Phenomena, Save Time and Provide a Framework for Working Together.

4. The Thesis: The Keywords Primarily Serve the Physicians, at Times at the Expense of the Patients’ Best Interests.

5. Death With Dignity »To have dignity means to look at oneself with self-respect, with some sort of satisfaction.

6. ‘Quality of Life’ Positive connotations, for example, in rehabilitation, cosmetic treatments, psychiatry, and psychology

7. However, when dealing with end of life issues, ethicists who support euthanasia use the term ‘quality of life’ in a negative sense more often than in a positive one, meaning that they do not seek to improve the patient’s life but to end it

8. This phrase often serves to justify the termination of life A subjective concept, meaning that one’s quality of life is determined by one’s personal life circumstances

9. Patients in ‘Persistent Vegetative State’ Prolonged unawareness and post-coma unawareness (PCU) The term ‘vegetative’ dehumanizes patients and therefore is offensive to patients and their beloved people

10. We should strive to describe the condition without offending patients or their beloved people We should not strip patients of their human and moral characteristics

11. ‘Double Effect’ Two basic presuppositions: (1) the doctor’s motivation is to alleviate suffering (2) the treatment must be proportional to the illness The rule is not a necessary means to adequate pain relief because informed consent, the degree of suffering, and the absence of less harmful alternatives suffice

12. Conclusions A need to introduce more ethics into the medical school curriculum, equipping the medical staff with communication skills A need to invest more time talking with patients and their beloved people

13. Clean the language and clarify it sincerely Use elaborate explanations instead of concise, obscure or unethical terms