The American Way of Hospice

Abstract

The British concept of hospice was transferred to the different cultural and medical milieu of the United States in the early 1970s. In a preliminary assessment of the hospice movement in this country, the authors discuss accreditation and licensure, funding, and the attitudes of the medical community. They conclude that there is still a struggle over basic principles within the movement, and a concern by some that a too-easy embrace of hospice care can lead to an anti-therapy position. Yet hospices teach an important moral lesson about human responsibility and interdependence. (KIE abstract)