Abstract

The article analyses some emerging aspects for contemporary psychology: the relationship between palliative care, the care plan shared with patients with an inauspicious prognosis, respect for the dignity of the dying person and his or her wishes, and the management of the request to die with the help of the doctor. The Italian regulatory horizon is therefore considered in relation to each of these nodes, and that which sanctions the role of the psychologist as an elective figure with respect to the management of each step. Since the founding ethical framework of palliative care excludes the possibility of considering a request for medically assisted voluntary death while, on the contrary, the bill on euthanasia currently at a standstill in the Senate assumes that such a request involves a prior palliative course on the part of the patient, the article reflects on the possibility for palliative psychology to consider the therapeutic continuity between the two polarities, proposing to use the alternative terms, proposed by the perspective of Un Diritto Gentile to which the law 219/17 is already owed, to indicate this continuity, with the indication of the shift from helping «in» dying to helping «at» dying. Deontological and methodological issues are finally considered, emphasising the importance of palliative psychology in adopting the integrated approach required in this field of intervention, as a function of respect for the principles of dignity and self-determination of patients. It is also highlighted how, in the field of death and dying, it is not possible to disregard the recognition of the psychological and social dynamics on which the meaning and value attributed to the finiteness of life are established.