In this century, dying has been seen as a medical event, not as a milestone in the life and history of a family. In the United States today, almost 3,000 local hospice and palliative care programs offer specialized care to people suffering from fatal illnesses, such as cancer. Good hospices are rooted in, and responsive to, the communities they serve, and to the people who live and die there . Communication . . . These shelters helped pilgrims, many of whom were traveling to these shrines seeking miraculous cure of chronic and fatal illnesses, and many of whom died while on their pilgrimages.
Most people die at home, cared for by the women in the family.
In 1879 Mother Mary Aikenhead of the Irish Sisters of Charity opens Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin, caring only for dying. This is now standard practice in good hospice and palliative care. These include Hospice of Marin in California, the Palliative Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, the Support Team at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, and Church Hospital Hospice in Baltimore. Medicare adds a hospice benefit in 1984. There is well-established hospice and palliative care in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and much of Asia and Western Europe.