生命代价之重与优逝善终之难——一项有关晚期癌症患者调查研究的启示

The Price of Survival and the Hardship of Good Death:A Study of Terminal Cancer Patients

依据一项涉及中国近800名晚期癌症患者医药用费和身心痛苦的调查研究,本文首先提出一个生命代价之重何以发生的问题,随后将临终关怀的欠发达与优逝善终之难作为因果关系予以分析。笔者试图说明,考虑到中国人口老龄化的提速、慢病患者群体的扩大以及恶性肿瘤的高发趋势,可以减少医药费用和患者疼痛的临终姑息护理,亟待普及优化。

Drawing on a study about the disastrous cost of medical care and the unbearable degree of pain among terminal cancer patients in China's Mainland,this paper argues that the life course of Chinese citizens is framed to start with the official expectation for the high quality of human births but the dismal quality of human deaths has remained absent from official attention,as evidenced by the country’s extensive shortage of palliative care for more than two million cancer patients who approach the end of their lives every year.Given China’s fast speed of population aging and its increasing burden of chronic diseases,services specailizing in pallitative care must be scaled up so as to ensure the improvement of terminal care for millions of patients in the last stage of their lives.