A History of Palliative Care, 1500-1970: Concepts, Practices, and Ethical challenges

by Michael Stolberg

This book on the history of palliative care, 1500-1970 traces the historical roots of modern palliative care in Europe to the rise of the hospice movement in the 1960s. The author discusses largely forgotten premodern concepts like cura palliativa and euthanasia medica and describes, how patients and physicians experienced and dealt with terminal illness. He traces the origins of hospitals for incurable and dying patients and follows the long history of ethical debates on issues like truth-telling and the intentional shortening of the dying patients’ lives and the controversies they sparked between physicians and patients. An eye opener for anyone interested in the history of ethical decision making regarding terminal care of critically ill patients.

227 pages, Hardcover

Published May 5, 2017

Reviews

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic and engaging read. I wasn’t expecting to move through this text so quickly, but I finished this in three days and you could easily finish it in one. The language of this book is particularly artful, and I have to commend both the author and the translators for their work. Stolberg effectively utilizes early medical texts, personal histories, and a few fictional accounts of terminal illness and and dying to illustrate how we came to what we call palliative care today.

[Delbert Yip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and definitely something I will return to, especially for the many valuable historical insights and sources on subjects such as attitudes towards a 'good death,' or how 'palliative' care has far-reaching historical roots. The conclusion includes a concise overview of the discussion, which would be valuable for a refresher or preview, but also contains a thought-provoking reflection on the roles of hospices in providing care at the end of life.