**Abstract**

Health services received at the end-of-life (EoL) are accepted as a basic human right. EoL is a very difficult period for patients and their families. Patients in the EoL period should be provided palliative care (PC) services that will increase their quality of life, so their families. Especially pain and other symptoms that the patient faces should be relieved during PC, and grief counseling should be provided to families in the mourning period after the patient's death. A significant majority of patients who need PC services are cancer patients. Health professionals, including doctors in the first place, should conduct their relationships between patients' families and with patients who need PC in accordance with biomedical ethical principles. The biomedical ethical principles that will protect the boundaries that should not be exceeded are as follows: (1) explaining that the person can participate in decisions about their treatment: Respect for autonomy; (2) explaining that they should not suffer any healthcare-related harm while receiving healthcare services: Nonmaleficence; (3) explaining that the health services they receive should be evidence-based and useful for the patient: Beneficence; and (4) explaining that the patient can get the health service she needs as much as she needs: Justice.

**Keywords:** end-of-life, palliative care, biomedical ethics, autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice

## **1. Introduction**

At the present time, relieving the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients is a basic human right [1]. However, accessing this right is unfortunately not given equal importance all around the world. In a world where death is inevitable, people deserve to die with dignity, that is, to die a "good death." This includes making their own choices, not prolonging death unnecessarily, being considered a complete individual, and giving importance to their family and values [2].

Palliative care (PC) centers have become increasingly important as places that strive to provide a decent death. Their numbers have increased over time since they first emerged, but they are still not at the desired level [3].

Societies have taken their share of the advances in science and technology, which has affected the demographic structure, increased the elderly population and changed the disease patterns. Starting from developed countries, communicable diseases have left their place to non-communicable diseases [4]. These new balances have led to a higher number of healthcare professions and healthcare professionals, and this has made healthcare services more and more complex [5]. Aside from all these, society's

expectations of modern medicine have changed, particularly in developed western countries, deaths at home have been replaced with deaths at hospitals [6], which has required ever more careful consideration of the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals.

Morality refers to a set of local norms, rules, and values that are developed by societies to regulate human relations. Ethics, on the other hand, universally refers to a philosophical reflection or questioning about morality, and it is divided into two categories: theoretical ethics and applied ethics [7].
