TY - JOUR T1 - Dignity therapy: Final words for final days AU - Barnosky AR Y1 - 2012/06/20 N1 - 10.1001/jama.307.23.2550 JO - JAMA SP - 2550 EP - 2550 VL - 307 IS - 23 N2 - Palliative care retains the humanistic tradition in Western medicine that prioritizes the relief of human suffering and preservation of dignity among those with incurable and life-limiting diseases. Hospice and palliative medicine clinicians thus aspire to the common professional goal of becoming highly accomplished in clinical interventions that promote dignity in dying persons. The commitment to honoring human dignity when caring for the dying was perhaps best articulated by the late Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement and St Christopher's Hospice in London, in her early writings: “You matter because you are you. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” SN - 0098-7484 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jama.307.23.2550 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.307.23.2550 ER -