Death and the Research Imperative
Top Cited Papers
- 2 March 2000
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Massachusetts Medical Society in New England Journal of Medicine
- Vol. 342 (9) , 654-656
- https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm200003023420910
Abstract
For several years, there has been an awareness of the often harmful power of the “technological imperative” in the care of dying patients — that is, the compulsive use of technology to maintain life when palliative care would be more appropriate. There is another imperative that now deserves more attention in assessing the care of dying patients: the research imperative. It stems from the view that medicine has an almost sacred duty to combat all the known causes of death. Underlying this view is the assumption, usually tacit, that death is the principal evil of human life.At the heart . . .Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Aging, Health Risks, and Cumulative DisabilityNew England Journal of Medicine, 1998
- The Physician's Obligation to Prolong Life: A Medical Duty without Classical RootsHastings Center Report, 1978