Douleur, souffrance et mal

By definition, medical care is given in response to a disease-related ordeal of suffering. Caught between pain and illness, the subject has to cope with existential and metaphysical questions about the meaning of such suffering. In this sense, palliative care is in a unique position, at the crossroads between the merciless fight against pain and the acceptance of an experience of life: terminal illness. This is why palliative care is not only a “medical specialty”, but also a set of ethical values attached to medical care for the living, through to the end of life.