The Challenges Facing Palliative Care Advocacy: What Is in a Name?

Abstract

The need for Palliative Care (PC) continues to grow throughout the world, requiring continuous development, true to its “ethos.” As awareness grows so does the expectation for timely response and policies to potentiate its delivery. The scientific dimension of its philosophy, underpinned by research and scientific practice, looks to explain its nature, origin and concepts, models and theories within which it is delivered. The concept palliation is widely used; yet, it is understudied by academics and clinicians. Interestingly, it is increasingly questioned by society and other specialists, calling for it to “be debated and essentially contested”. Our aim is to contribute to society’s understanding of palliative care so that they can have a clear and truthful awareness of the complex implications of its mission. We approach the different concepts, scientific theories and structures can be achieved by following different pathways, including defining its “ethos”: personality or nature, manifest in the very formulae by which PC places itself before those who need it. What a fascinating topic it is to research and write on!, phenomenological in its base, it shows how different translations of the Anglo-Saxon PC influence its understanding and much needed expansion. Semiotics are at the base of the essence of how palliative care might be assumed and promoted. PC is, for sure, one of the most important, existential spheres to apply our knowledge today and a novel promising methodology to apply the semiotic and phenomenological approaches learning of different aspects of cultural transfer processes.