Pascal's Wager and the Hanging of Crepe
- 23 October 1975
- journal article
- Published by Massachusetts Medical Society in New England Journal of Medicine
- Vol. 293 (17) , 853-857
- https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm197510232931705
Abstract
Hanging of crepe refers to one type of strategy employed by physicians in communicating prognoses to families of critically ill patients. This approach offers the bleakest, most pessimistic prediction of the patient's outcome, presumably in an effort to lessen the family's suffering if the patient dies of his illness. Certain similarities exist between this technic and that used by Pascal, the 17th-century philosopher, in formulating his wager on the belief in God, in that both attempt to develop "no-lose" strategies, in which chances for "winning" are maximized.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Clinical ObservationJAMA, 1965