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Previous Volume 342:654-656 March 2, 2000 Number 9 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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For several years, there has been an awareness of the often harmful power of the "technological imperative" in the care of dying patients — that is, the compulsive use of technology to maintain life when palliative care would be more appropriate. There is another imperative that now deserves more attention in assessing the care of dying patients: the research imperative. It stems from the view that medicine has an almost sacred duty to combat all the known causes of death. Underlying this view is the assumption, usually tacit, that death is the principal evil of human life.

At the heart . . . [Full Text of this Article]

The Mixed Record of Reform

Eliminating Death, Disease by Disease

The Clinical Spillover

Ameliorating the Conflict

References

Related Letters:

Death and the Research Imperative
Gardner T. J., Roberts C. S., Wells R. J., Quinn M. M., Portnoi V. A., Robinson B. E., Callahan D.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 2000; 343:223-225, Jul 20, 2000. Correspondence

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