Human Flourishing Program in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Plunkett Centre for Ethics, The Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Theor Med Bioeth. 2024 Oct;45(5):401-425. doi: 10.1007/s11017-024-09679-x. Epub 2024 Aug 20.
Flourishing is an increasingly common construct employed in the study of human wellbeing. But its appropriateness as a framework of wellbeing at certain stages of life is contested. In this paper, we consider to what extent it is possible for someone to flourish at the end of life. People with terminal illness often experience significant and protracted pain and suffering especially when they opt for treatments that prolong life. Certain aspects of human goods, however, that are plausibly constitutive of flourishing-such as meaning and purpose, deep personal relationships, and character and virtue-can be uniquely realised when life is ending. We argue that there is a qualified sense in which one can flourish at the end of life but that one must make important modifications to the criteria implicit in conventional conceptions of flourishing. We close with a discussion of the empirical assessment of wellbeing at the end of life and explore the possibility of introducing a flourishing measure in palliative care practice.
繁荣是人类福祉研究中越来越常见的一个概念。但是，在生命的某些阶段，它作为福祉框架的适当性是有争议的。在本文中，我们考虑一个人在生命的尽头是否有可能繁荣。患有绝症的人经常经历严重和长期的痛苦和苦难，特别是当他们选择延长生命的治疗方法时。然而，繁荣的某些方面——如意义和目的、深厚的人际关系、性格和美德——在生命即将结束时可以独特地实现。我们认为，在有条件的意义上，一个人可以在生命的尽头繁荣，但必须对传统繁荣概念中隐含的标准进行重要修改。我们最后讨论了生命尽头的幸福感的实证评估，并探讨了在姑息治疗实践中引入繁荣衡量标准的可能性。
