Illness, suffering, dying and death are difficult problems of human existence. As a result of the increasing incidence of cancer and other diseases not amenable to causal treatment, the number of people requiring palliative care is increasing. The prospect of impending death poses numerous dilemmas and raises ethical questions: these may include issues of patient information about diagnosis and prognosis, proportionality of measures used and withdrawal of persistent therapy, methods used to alleviate pain with side-effects, the problem of terminal sedation, issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of public awareness of the ethical principles and problems occurring in palliative care, and to find out the views regarding their observance. The study included families of terminally ill patients residing in the inpatient Hospice in D\u0105browa Tarnowska. The diagnostic survey method was used to find out the knowledge of the respondents; the chosen research technique was a questionnaire survey. The research showed insufficient knowledge of ethical principles and a correlation between age and education and knowledge of ethical principles. Respondents are opposed to euthanasia, but mostly do not respect the patient's right to autonomy, informed consent for any action, the obligation to inform the patient about the state of health, the possibility to choose sedation or conscious dying, to give up persistent therapy. For the development of proper care for the terminally ill person, it seems necessary to spread knowledge of ethical principles among families, health services and society as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n