[The duty of hospice for holistic medicine]

The hospice program has a sense of absolute in the context of the provision of treatment by the medical establishment. The aim of the medical establishment is humanistic treatment. The aim of the hospice program is to allow doctors in charge, thru their medical skills, to make the most effort for the life of the patient. As such, the goal of the hospice program is not just to ease the physical pain of terminal patients, but rather to help the patient live the remainder of his or her life in a meaningful way, offering intensive support and energy to help the patient challenge and even defy his or her life. Today in Japan, the hospice care program has established a system of renumeration for use of special cancer wards and pain-easing treatments. Because of this, hospice care is becoming wide-spread among medical care organizations. Such wide-spread care is a very desirable thing. But if the economic value of hospice care is only to ease physical pain, then hospice care is essentially a formless act. If we do not effect the appropriate value both socially and economically, one wonders if the hospice care in Japan will be able to develop the correct approach.