Palliative care, what’s it?
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At some point it’s no longer possible or reasonable to target a cure or meaningfully extend life, so medical treatment then switches to “palliative care”
The idea is that the patient is effectively doomed, and steps should be taken to *minimze* suffering instead of *extending* it with aggressive treatment that only adds a few miserable weeks of life.
Say your 93 year old grandmother has a colossal stroke and is left paralyzed and minimally responsive. Do you keep her alive indefinitely in the ICU at great cost and agony, or turn up the painkillers and let her go? It’s an ethical decision that must be made when the end of life is no longer avoidable, but different people have different opinions on exactly when it should be made.
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