by Emily K. Abel. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
At the turn of the 20th century, medicine’s imperative to cure disease increasingly took priority over the demand to relieve pain and suffering at the end of life. Filled with heartbreaking stories, The Inevitable Hour demonstrates that professional attention and resources gradually were diverted from dying patients. The book challenges myths about health care and dying in America, and helps to explain why a movement to restore dignity to the dying arose in the early 1970s.