After assisted suicide was legalized in Austria in January 2022, inpatient care facilities are faced with the question of how to deal with it. This legal change affects all people, especially caregivers and nurses who accompany seriously ill, dying people. An intensive examination of the topics of autonomy, self-determination and assisted suicide has begun and the use of various concepts and instruments is being discussed.
This thesis lists the tools of proactive planning to support autonomy and self-determination, attempts to explain how palliative care promotes self-determination and autonomy, and shows the consequences of resorting to assisted suicide.
In the first part of the work, the most important terms such as self-determination, autonomy, living wills or palliative care are presented and discussed, in the second part the instruments of forward-looking planning to support autonomy and self-determination at the end of life are discussed in detail. A literature search is used methodologically.