THERAPEUTIC PROPORTIONALITY AND DIGNITY AT THE END OF LIFE: RETHINKING THE RIGHT TO LIFE FROM THE NATIONAL POLICY ON PALLIATIVE CARE

Abstract

This article examines whether the constitutional protection of the right to life requires preserving biological existence by every available means, or whether it must be read together with human dignity, patient autonomy, and therapeutic proportionality. It starts from the hypothesis that, under Brazilian constitutional law, the right to life is not an absolute duty of biological prolongation and is compatible with limiting disproportionate, futile, or clinically non-beneficial treatment, a limitation that remains conceptually and normatively distinct from euthanasia and assisted suicide. The study is an integrative literature review, of qualitative approach, combined with documentary analysis of the relevant Brazilian regulatory framework – the 1988 Federal Constitution, the Code of Medical Ethics, resolutions of the Federal Council of Medicine, and the National Palliative Care Policy established by Ordinance GM/MS No. 3,681/2024. Findings indicate that orthothanasia, negotiated treatment limitation, and palliative sedation rest on constitutional and deontological grounds distinct from those that would support deliberately shortening life, a topic that remains legally unregulated in Brazil. The article concludes that the effective implementation of palliative care as public policy is a precondition for patient autonomy and therapeutic proportionality to move beyond doctrinal categories into everyday clinical practice within the public health system.