The limits of "life-limiting"

The field of hospice and palliative medicine has struggled to define the conditions which are appropriate for palliative care. “Life-threatening” appropriately encompasses lethal conditions and helpfully incorporates the concept of probability, which is a necessary variable in any risk calculation. Yet it leaves one important group of patients unaccounted for: those whose primary need for palliative care is not expected abbreviation of life but rather the quality of that life. In an attempt to include these patients, the term “life-limiting” has come to be used more frequently.
Source: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management - Category: Palliative Care Authors: Source Type: research