ABSTRACT
In the years after World War II, first in the UK and subsequently in many parts of the world, a new way of responding to the care needs of people who were dying began to take shape. This new approach informed what became the modern hospice movement, palliative care and the pattern of bereavement care we now see in many countries. Pioneers began to shape a new heuristic that accepted the importance of embracing appropriate advances in medical science in the context of an ethical commitment to the importance of the self. Each individual should be supported to live as fully as possible until they died.
