Palliative Care in Europe

This text is concerned with the organization, ideas and problems of palliative care in the European context. As a result of a BIOMED project, various organizations, concepts and problematic issues of palliative care have been studied and described. This book provides an overview of developments in palliative care in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The book is aimed at healthcare professionals interested in the characteristics of palliative care, palliative care practitioners interested in exploring and analyzing the conceptual and philosophical issues of their discipline policy-makers, ethicists, and social scientists interested in the concepts and philosophical dimensions of palliative care. The contributions to the book have been developed in the context of a three year research project Palliative Care Ethics (PALLIUM). This project, funded by the Commission of the European Communities, aims at clarifying the interrelations of concepts and moral issues in palliative care in seven European countries. All authors have co-operated as researchers in the project over the last three years. They are experts in palliative care and/or ethics in their respective countries. All of the chapters have been prepared for this volume in the context of the project.