Paper Title
"Persistent Therapy - Saving Lives or Unnecessary Suffering?"

Abstract
Admission: Every day, almost every hospital implements procedures that are designed to support the life of an incurably ill person. Often, such activities of medical staff, aimed at maximizing the patient's life, regardless of his condition, are associated with ethical problems. Experts from various professions are considering this problem, among others doctors, nurses, paramedics, lawyers, psychologists, clergy and persons involved in the organization of the healthcare system. Aim: The purpose of this work is to present the level of awareness of medical staff and their opinions on end-of-life problems and to present the nature of the ethical conflict of persistent therapy in hospitals. Material and materials: The study described in the paper uses the diagnostic survey method, survey technique and tool - a questionnaire of my own authorship. The questionnaire contains the record and questions about the level of knowledge, awareness and opinions of medical staff about futile therapy. The study was conducted among 500 people. Conducted between October 2019 and November 2019. The respondents expressed their consent and willingness to participate in the study and were informed about the anonymity of the response. The respondents are representatives of various medical professions (doctors, nurses, paramedics). Conclusions: The presented problem of persistent therapy aroused many extreme emotions among the respondents. Opinions were quite divided. According to 1/3 of respondents (32%), persistent therapy is a painful extension of agony. Some respondents recognized it as extending the lives of patients (27%), or using specialized medical procedures for terminally ill patients (24%), or trying to win with death (6%). Representatives of the medical professions who met in their work with persistent therapy pointed to the problem that this therapy caused the patient unnecessary suffering. Keywords : persistent therapy, terminal phase, ethical dilemmas, ethics