[Advance directives which reveal new relations to care].

Advanced directives show the necessity to respect the living will of the patient even when he or she is no longer able to express it. This purview requires a renewed questioning of the physician-patient relationship, which was for a long time limited to the need for medical beneficence but which today must be combined with the autonomy of the patient. Different cultural and philosophical models do not prevent practical convergence which allow a satisfying articulation between the beneficience of the physician and the autonomy of the patient.