This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (13)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ernst L. Wynder, MD; Marvin M. Kristein, PhD

JAMA. 1977;238(14):1507.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A DISTINGUISHED physician recently expressed concern about the long terminal illness of one of his parents. What, our colleague queried, would happen to society if medical advances led most of us to such a demise? Aside from emotional problems affecting the family, would not such a state of sick old people undo the fiscal structure of our health care system? Yes, but is it really necessary that we must end our days old and sick if we alter our current health care system?

This question raises one of the most important issues about the future of our society—an issue of human capital and resources as vital and pressing as the problems of energy and economic capital and resources. The medical profession and society's planners for the future must responsibly face the issues raised by this question, and the purpose of this note is to open such a discussion.

Let us . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
American Health Foundation New York

From the American Health Foundation, New York.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to American Health Foundation, 1370 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 (Dr Wynder).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?