She noted that Britain's House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics, a New York State task force studying the same issue and Canada's Senate committee on euthanasia and assisted suicide all recommended extending palliative care rather than changing the laws to make euthanasia easier. Today, St. Christopher's has more than 300 staff and 800 volunteers and has inspired the foundation of similar centres worldwide. McGill's own Palliative Care Service was established in 1974 by Dr. Balfour Mount, based on the principles established by Saunders. Mount had conducted a survey at the Royal Victoria Hospital which demonstrated that the needs of dying patients were not being met. With Saunders's support, Mount was able to establish a hospice setting within a teaching hospital, and the Vic's hospital-based model has since been adopted by the World Health Organization and health care institutions in more than 30 countries.
Palliative medicine is now a recognized specialty in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Working with the dying has taught Saunders about living. People move fast in a crisis and if the crisis is knowing your life is coming to an end, you see people reconciling with their families, reconciling with themselves, sorting out what really is important. Saunders wants one that will give her time to tie up loose ends. Everyone else would like to have a stroke on the golf course. I've done what I had to do with my life.