The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

Volume 17, Issue 4, Winter 2017

A Study of Accompaniment at the End of Life

In discussions of end-of-life care and what the often-used but often-misunderstood buzzword “accompaniment” means, the core of the issue has often been missed, leading to inappropriate responses by physicians, loved ones, and the dying persons themselves. Emphasis is often placed on the care of circumstances rather than the care of persons. In what follows, these issues are systematically addressed to show that when patients face physical death, a truly ethical response is authentic, loving accompaniment of them. This form of such accompaniment is explored.