Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39162937›Full record

ArticleTheoretical medicine and bioethics2024

Flourishing at the end of life.

Xavier Symons, John Rhee, Anthony Tanous, Tracy Balboni, Tyler J VanderWeele

Erratum issuedAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Missed opportunities to promote flourishing in cancer care: a brief examination of multiple myeloma.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Hope and spiritual well-being: two sides of the same coin?Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Xavier SymonsHuman Flourishing Program in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. xavier_symons@hsph.harvard.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-9495-4395
John RheeCenter for Neuro-oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Anthony TanousSchool of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Tracy BalboniDivision of Adult Palliative Care, Department of Psychosocial Oncology & Palliative Care, Dana Faber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Tyler J VanderWeeleHuman Flourishing Program in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

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.

Indexed as

Palliative CareTerminal CareHumansPainPersonal SatisfactionQuality of LifeTerminally IllAristotleDeathEnd of lifeEudaimoniaFlourishingTerminal illnessWellbeing

Identifiers

PMID39162937
PMCPMC11358345

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.