Tradução, adaptação e validação de uma escala de atitudes em relação a morte medicamente assistida.

Abstract

Palliative care is defined as an approach of biopsychosocial and spiritual nature oriented toward the comfort and quality of life of people with life threatening illness, especially at the end of life, without hastening or postponing death. Among the responsibilities of the palliative care professional are relieving the suffering of the patient and family, providing emotional support, and making end of life decisions that respect autonomy. Over the past two decades, medically assisted death, which includes euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, has expanded, generating ethical, clinical, and organisational challenges and keeping its relationship with palliative care controversial, from models of strict separation to cases of integration, such as in Belgium. It is therefore essential to understand professionals' attitudes toward medically assisted death, given the impact on the continuity and quality of care delivery. However, there is no standardised and validated instrument in Portuguese for this assessment. This study aims to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Attitude Scales on Passive Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Death into Portuguese, in both European and Brazilian variants, thereby enabling reliable measurement of palliative care professionals' attitudes in Portuguese speaking countries and helping to clarify the role of the palliative care professional, with an emphasis on emotional support and the provision of high quality palliative care in end of life decisions.