Promoting Palliative Care to Cancer Patients in the Republic of Kazakhstan

In his recent book, Palliative Care: The 400-Year Quest for a Good Death, [1] Harold Vanderpool traces the emergence of medical palliation to a proclamation by Sir Francis Bacon in 1605 challenging physicians to offer and continually improve palliative medical care and treatment for dying persons. Florence Nightingale also contributed significantly to the evolution of what we call palliative care today, although the period of 1895 to 1959 – a time of great advances in medicine – unfortunately led to less appropriate care for the dying, though it contributed to discussions about the ethics of treating the dying. The following period (1960-1981) is described as a time of momentous transition. The influence of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Cicely Saunders emerged, solidifying palliative care concepts in the US and UK, and thereafter worldwide.