[The future of palliative care.]

The future of palliative care is quite uncertain, both in terms of health economics and organisation. Among elements which affect his future development, it is mostly difficult to identify those ones operating covertly. Among these ones, the long shadow of a division within medical practice since the origins of palliative care: two models of medicine oriented in opposite directions. Adopting a symbolic terminology, we can talk about a medicine modeled in a heroic and masculine sense (according with the cliché that "men come from Mars") and a medicine that takes on the stereotype of female kindness and humanity ("women come from Venus"). Gender dualism translated into the practice of palliative care is highlighted in an all-out interventionism, which then makes way to palliation "when there is nothing left to do". Similarly to what happened in the field of gender identity, bipolar rigidity must also be questioned in medicine by a model inspired by queerness. Palliation that can fluidly integrate the two approaches can be an inspiration to the practice of medicine tout court.