Between hope and acceptance: the medicalisation of dying

摘要

In the mid-1970s, Ivan Illich launched a powerful attack on the "medicalisation" df dying. The rise of palliative care has been one response to calls for greater dignity at the end of life. Yet the wider medical system continues to regard death as something to be resisted, postponed, or avoided. The charge of creeping medicalisation has also been levelled at palliative care. All physicians face the problem of balancing technical intervention with a humanistic orientation to their dying patients.