To be alive when dying: moral catharsis and hope in patients with limited life prognosis
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To be alive when dying: moral catharsis and hope in patients with limited life prognosisAuthor(s)
Date
2021Citation
Vergara, O. To be alive when dying: moral catharsis and hope in patients with limited life prognosis. Med Health Care and Philos 24, 517–527 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10028-1
Abstract
[Abstract]: The Stoics considered that in order to die well, one must previously have lived (well) and not merely existed, an assertion which will not be contested in this paper. The question raised here is whether an individual whose life expectancy is jeopardized
by serious illness or whose life has not been lived to the ‘full’ for whatever reason should have to abandon all hope or,alternately, whether that life could still somehow be saved (in an ethical sense). One clear obstacle to achieving this stems from (bad) moral character, given that moral character is an element which conditions an individual’s moral behaviour, as
pointed out by Beauchamp and Childress and particularly Pellegrino and Thomasma. The transformation of moral character requires time and effort but the testimonies of patients who have given their lives a radical new direction upon being diagnosed with a serious illness seem to show the existence of a peculiar phenomenon of moral catharsis. In this paper we
attempt to illustrate that this alleged phenomenon is not the result of a kind of cataleptic impression but rather the result of a dialectic and narrative process, during which a first hope of healing is dashed, unveiling a new sense in the illness. Its fulfillment provides the patient with a final hope.
Keywords
Virtue ethics
Narrative ethics
Moral character
Moral catharsis
Suffering
Hope
Narrative ethics
Moral character
Moral catharsis
Suffering
Hope
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Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
1572-8633