[When the one who heals dies. The physician at the end of life].

Authors

Eduardo Daniel Anica-Malagón, Yareni Natividad Salgado-Abrego

Published in

Revista medica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. Volume 64. Issue 4. Pages e6961. Jul 13, 2026. Epub Jul 13, 2026.

Abstract

A physician's death represents a critical point of tension between the values of modern medicine and the ethical limits of care. This review article analyzes how physicians face their own end of life and the type of care they receive compared with the general population. A narrative review of literature published between 2014 and 2025 was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and SciELO databases with the MeSH and DeCS descriptors: "Terminal care", "Palliative care", "Attitude to death", "Health personnel", "Right to die". Findings show that although physicians express a preference for a dignified death with therapeutic proportionality and symptom control, many still die under highly technological and interventionist schemes. Mexico lacks systematic data documenting how its physicians die, revealing a gap between ethical intention and institutional practice. This analysis proposes developing a observational study to characterize therapeutic intensity, respect for autonomy, and the moral distress experienced by healthcare teams as bioethical and occupational issues within the health system.

PMID:
42447469
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Jul 2026.

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