Palliative Care is Medical Care, Too

When Senator McCain's family announced that he was no longer going to treat his cancer, some reporters said he was stopping medical care. But others understood that palliative care is medical care, too.  Isaac Chan wrote in the Washington Post about the difficult but vitally important conversations with dying patients.

Many physicians encourage early palliative care for terminally ill patients, to make the process of dying less painful, more cost-effective and patient-focused. But if the patients are not ready, instead of feeling relief, they may experience this advice as abandonment. Without first considering how patients understand their own condition, doctors risk returning to a culture of paternalistic medicine, one where physicians make decisions for the patient in the belief that they know best. Disagreements about treatments between doctors and their patients near the end of life can be devastating. So communication is vital.