An Historical Look Back: Dame Cicely Saunders

“I think very soon the right to die will become the duty to die.”

Dame Cecily Mary Strode Sauders, M.D., Founder of the modern hospice movement, 1918 – 2005

On euthanasia, 60 Minutes, CBS TV 24 Jul 83.

Credited with founding the modern hospice movement; she was the leading figure in the campaign to establish hospices around the world. Guided by her Christian faith and strongly opposed euthanasia, Saunders had a clear view of the role of hospices. "I once asked a man who knew he was dying what he needed above all in those who were caring for him. He said, 'For someone to look as if they are trying to understand me'," she said. "Indeed, it is impossible to understand fully another person, but I never forgot that he did not ask for success but only that someone should care enough to try." Her belief that dying is a phenomenon "as natural as being born," was at the heart of a philosophy that sees death as a process that should be life-affirming and free of pain. In her work toward changing society's attitude to what was regarded as the Western world's last taboo she said, "You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life." Dame Cecily Saunders - Hospice Founder