Dr Richard Horton
Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
This event is postponed. This page will be updated as soon as we have a new date. Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Join The Lancet Commission and a multidisciplinary host of speakers at this wide-ranging exploration of the relationship we have with death and dying today.
The nature of death has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death thinks that society and health care have an unhealthy relationship with death, increasing suffering by attempts to delay it.
This is the first time the Lancet has commissioned such a report and it sits at the intersection between culture, philosophy, medicine and religion. It has a global focus and concludes with a series of key recommendations about how medicine and wider society may build a healthier relationship with death, a central question for the 21st century as we grapple with demographic changes and climate change.
Meeting objectives:
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Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Executive Director, Duke-NUS Medical School
Founder Chairman, Pallium India
Professor Rajagopal is the founder chairman of Pallium India, a palliative care non-governmental organisation based in Kerala, India. He is often referred to as the 'father of palliative care in India' in honour of his significant contribution to the palliative care scene in India.
Rajagopal's advocacy has contributed to the amendment of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of India in 2014 and in its implementation—a critical step in reducing needless suffering and allowing millions to access pain relief. He has had a film made about his life (Experiments in Gently Shaking the World) and has been given numerous international awards in recognition of his activism.
Professor Rajagopal, Palliative Care Physician, India
Mr Richard Smith, Chair, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
Dr Robin Durie, Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
Professor Eric Andrew Finkelstein, Executive Director, Duke-NUS Medical School
Professor Rajagopal, Founder Chairman, Pallium India
Dr Libby Sallnow, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, St Christopher’s Hospice
Professor Felicia Knaul, University of Miami
Professor Beppe Remuzzi, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
Dr Kathryn Mannix and Dr Seamus O’Mahoney
Mr Brian Smith
Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole St, Marylebone, London, W1G 0AE, United Kingdom