[Selection for a hospice--a multi-faceted task]

The object with this article is to pass on experience regarding the registration of patients for admittance to Sankt Lukas Stiftelsens Hospice in Denmark. It is a large and difficult ethical problem, in how far one can accept a more or less unsure diagnosis in connection with admittance to a hospice, either because it has not been medically possible to reach, or because the patient is unable to accept a precise diagnosis. It can be difficult for the patient to drop curative treatment, and by doing so indirectly choose purely palliative treatment. The admittance staff of the hospice have a large responsibility. They should ensure, that patients and their relatives are fully informed of, what the hospice can offer, and especially what it cannot offer in the way of curative medicine. One must prefer, that patients qualified for admittance to the hospice are competent during the admittance stage. It would in many cases be troubling and difficult after duly supported assumptions to accept patients with non-malign diseases for admittance to the hospice.