2006 Essays

Attending to the Pain of the Dying: An Agenda for Science

Pollack, Robert

There is, then, a realistic scientific agenda for the period from the moment when there is nothing that medical science can do to stop death from coming until the moment of death. It is to understand the mind and the body well enough to keep both as free of pain, and as free of isolation, as possible. Science can complement the work of a hospice by providing it with new tools to accomplish these ends.