Transition from life to death is terrifying. It demonstrates with grim finality man's time-limited existence. Dying is a distressing journey beyond the frontiers of human knowledge and experience, and nothing generates greater fear than the unknown. Thus, it is not surprising that dying arouses strong emotions in the deceased before death and in the bereaved afterward.
While man's technical skills have enabled him to postpone the inevitable, eventually he must bow to the agony of extinction, which meets him sometimes on the road, sometimes at home, and often in the hospital. To facilitate and succor this process, special hospices have been founded across our country. The idea of hospice, however, is not new. It has its roots in medieval monasteries and convents. In modern times Our Ladies Hospice has been functioning in Dublin for almost 100 years.
The movement's current impetus in the United States started when the National Cancer