The heart of palliative care is relational: a scoping review of the ethics of care in palliative medicine.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Palliative care, perhaps more than any subspecialty in healthcare, is deeply relational and engages patients and families at times of great vulnerability. Ethics of care, or relational ethics, developed through contributions from feminist ethics, offers conceptual tools and ways of thinking that seem especially suited to palliative care practice.

Aim

To identify and describe studies and theoretical analyses applying the ethics of care to palliative care (both adult and paediatric), specifically, its use to guide and improve practice and education for palliative care practitioners.

Design

We conducted a scoping review of six databases covering clinical, social science and normative ethics scholarship and conducted a thematic analysis of the findings and ethi

SUBMITTER: Bertaud S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12105298 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature