12:30-1:30pm
Jordan Conference Center Auditorium
University of Virginia School of Medicine
History of the Health Sciences Lecture:
Dying in America
Marcia Angel MD MACP
Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Medicine and Faculty Associate
Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA
Former Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine
Dying in America is very different now from half a century ago. Before World War II, death usually occurred at home, often with no medical intervention. But with the bioscientific and medical advances that began in the 1950s, death became medicalized. In hospitals, it became possible to extend life. Often, patients were cured who would otherwise have died, but many endured protracted deaths in which suffering from treatment was worse than suffering from their fatal illness. Through the last decades of the 20th century, the medical and legal professions, medical ethicists, and the public began to consider ways to limit treatment, even to hasten death. It became generally accepted that all patients have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Now, five U. S. states recognize physician-assisted suicide.
In this Medical Center Hour, physician and former New England Journal of
Medicine editor-in-chief Marcia Angell traces the history of these changes,
then inquires into where we stand now on dying. And where do we go from here?
