El testamento vital o instrucciones previasanálisis jurilingüístico y textual de un género en desarrollo

Abstract

Although there is the precedent of the Living Will that emerged in the United Sta tes at the end of the 1960s, the so-called testamento vital is a textual genre that in the Hispanic world did not begin to develop until the 2000s. Hence, Nord's (1997: 115) assertion that new genres are practically non-existent can only be considered partially true. In this contribution we first make a brief legal analysis of testamento vital (legal framework, legal concept and scope, particular regulations); secondly, we analyse the terminological variation and the controversy surrounding the naming of this type of documents. Finally, we carry out a descriptive analysis, based on a sample of model Spanish texts, which allows us to verify whether we are dealing with a gen re that is still developing.