| Pascal's wager and the hanging of crepe. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 1177976 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Hanging of crepe refers to one type of strategy employed by physicians in communicating prognoses to families of critically ill patients. This approach offers the bleakest, most pessimistic prediction of the patient's outcome, presumably in an effort to lessen the family's suffering if the patient dies of his illness. Certain similarities exist between this technic and that used by Pascal, the 17th-century philosopher, in formulating his wager on the belief in God, in that both attempt to develop "no-lose" strategies, in which chances for "winning" are maximized. A detailed analysis of these strategies indicates that neither is truly "no-lose," and that both contain inherent disadvantages. Prognostication, an alternative approach to physician-family communication, appears to be strategically and morally superior to the hanging-of-crepe strategy. |
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Authors:
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M Siegler |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: The New England journal of medicine Volume: 293 ISSN: 0028-4793 ISO Abbreviation: N. Engl. J. Med. Publication Date: 1975 Oct |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 1975-12-20 Completed Date: 1975-12-20 Revised Date: 2000-12-18 |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0255562 Medline TA: N Engl J Med Country: UNITED STATES |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 853-7 Citation Subset: AIM; IM |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Attitude of Health Personnel Attitude to Death Emotions Physicians* Probability Professional-Family Relations* Prognosis* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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