BACKGROUND Although most older people living in nursing homes die there, there is a dearth of robust evaluations of interventions to improve their end-of-life care. Residents usually have multiple health problems making them heavily reliant on staff for their care, which can erode their sense of dignity. Dignity Therapy has been developed to help promote dignity and reduce distress. It comprise...

BACKGROUND Respecting dignity is having a profound effect on the clinical relationship and the care framework for terminally ill patients in palliative care units, hospices and their own homes, with particular consequences for the emergency department. However, dignity is a vague and multifaceted concept that is difficult to measure. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to define the attributes...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness of Dignity Therapy to improve the quality of life and reduce psychological and spiritual distress in older people with early stage dementia. BACKGROUND Dementia is a syndrome with several causes that leads to a progressive decline in multiple areas of functioning. The maintenance of dignity and enhancemen...

BACKGROUND Dignity is a complex concept and there is little empirical research to show how older people view dignity. This study, using qualitative methods, explored the concept of dignity from the older person's perspective. METHODS 15 focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted in 12 different settings, with a total of 72 participants. Participants were purposively sampled to ...

The Roman Catholic Church in Australia has lobbied politicians to prohibit embryonic stem cell research, on the grounds that such research violates the sanctity and inherent dignity of human life. I suggest, however, that reasoned reflection does not uniquely support such conclusions about the morality of stem cell research. A recent parliamentary standing committee report recommended that embr...

Abstract According to Kant’s ethics, at least on one common interpretation, persons have a special worth or dignity that demands respect. But personhood is not coextensive with human life; for example, individuals can live in severe dementia after losing the capacities constitutive of personhood. Some philosophers, including David Velleman and Dennis Cooley, suggested living loss their might of...

Qur’anic verses and hadiths certify that Allah has bestowed dignity upon mankind. Therefore, man essentially deserves respect. Islamic law has primarily made use of two ways to safeguard human dignity. First, there are prohibitions in Islamic law that safeguard man’s dignity. Second, the penal laws of Islam restrict punishments to those cases where they are absolutely necessary. In this article...

The American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) position is that patients with addictive disease and pain have the right to be treated with dignity, respect, and the same quality of pain assessment and management as all other patients. This includes maintaining a balance between provision of pain relief and protection against inappropriate use of prescribed medications. Nurses are well...

In order to analyze what can plausibly be said about the relationship between dignity, human rights, and democracy, I will propose a basic assumption about human dignity (I) and then formulate five theses concerning the justification of democracy (II) which will allow me to conclude (III) that only when human rights are constitutionally established and effectively implemented democracy can be t...