The issues are presented from the perspective of Polish as well as foreign authors. What is more, the distinction between the institution of living will and the group of documents called “advance directives” has also been made.

The following part concentrates on the presentation of problems connected with the legal bases of the living will present in the international legislation taking codification operating in the European Union into consideration. The following legal acts were chosen to the analysis: General Declaration of Human Rights in UN, the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights, Declaration of Patient Rights WHO, Convention about the Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, Convention about the Protection of Human and Human Creature’s Dignity applying to Biology and Medicine resolved by the European Council, Recommendations 779 and 1418 as well as Resolution 613 resolved by Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council and also by the European Union Card of Basic Rights.

The legal bases of the living will in Poland are presented in the next chapter. These bases result from the patient rights included, for instance, in: the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the Act of Doctor’s Occupation and the Dentist’s Doctor, the Act of the Nurse and Midwife’s Occupations, the Act of Health Care Centers, Civil Code, and also the Code of Medical Ethics and Code of Processional Ethics of Polish Nurse and Midwife.

The thesis presents social foundations of implementation of the living will in Poland. It also contains a survey concerning the opinions about the living will gathered among varied age groups.

First, methodological research has been presented, its aims, problems and research hypotheses. The applied method is also discussed here. Furthermore, it contains analysis and the interpretation of the survey results concerning public opinion on the living will. On the basis of achieved information some conditions have been identified which, according to the surveyed, should be fulfilled in order that the living will could be force in Poland. It also shows the conditions that may have an influence on the attitudes of the society with reference to the document of living will in Poland.

Banal as it may sound, we will be pondering over death until the end of our lives. For the same amount of time, the responsibility for bringing new generations into the surrounding world will also rest on adults. Working with children cannot simply be a matter of improvisation and learning from experience. These may make up an element of professional development, but the basics of vocational experience – including the ability to hold a discussion and provide support in difficult situations – should be learnt by students as part of their vocational training. Here thanatopedagogy (death pedagogy) may help, as it has, among others, the task of helping teachers work with students when the latter are in mourning. Of course, in this situation there is no clear, ready recipe or point-by-point scenario to be followed. Dealing with loss, powerlessness, and suffering is a difficult art, especially since there seems to be no place in academic training for the cultivation of traits such as tolerance of frustration, awareness of one’s helplessness, unreciprocated relationships or the incompatibility of the role of teacher with other roles.

We require from our students conspectuses written according to general methodological principles. However, we forget to mention that the child with whom they will be working will not be an ideal student, a textbook example who always knows everything and how to do everything, who can construct, classify and put things into practice. Rather, this is a living child, who quite often doesn’t want to, doesn’t feel like it, cries, rebels, hurls insults, always has to go “pee-pee”, and outside in the sandbox throws sand in other children’s eyes… This is a child who feels, goes through experiences and very often asks “uncomfortable” questions which perhaps had not been foreseen in the conspectus, such as those about sex or death… And among this multitude of lists and classifications of qualifications it is often forgotten that a teacher – a full-grown person – must work with a small one not yet fully grown, and that his or her main goal is simply to teach the little one how to think… However, to achieve this one needs a readiness to provide wise, genuine and thoughtful answers to each and every question posed by a child.

tr. by Aniela Elizabeth Pramik