Two US companies announced earlier this week that they have shelved the testing of a particular drug. It had been the best hope for a treatment for Alzheimer's. many years work and more than a billion pounds of investment have come to naught, to the disappointment of the researchers involved and the doubtless greater disappointment of those in the very early stages of dementia. A long anticipated breakthrough has been cancelled. It is ironic, of course, that it is the success of medicine, not its failure, which has created what is increasingly referred to as the problem of old age. The success of medicine in dealing with the acute conditions which killed our grandparents, such as pneumonia and influenza, has contributed to a much extended life expectancy. But with that extension comes a new problem - whereas dying used to be, very often, a relatively short episode at the end of an otherwise healthy life, now more than 40% of us can expect not this pathway towards death, but instead a long and steady decline into dependence, debility and possibly dementia. We will live much longer, but we will probably dwindle long before we die, and this at a time when changing demographics leave a smaller cohort of those middle-aged children on whom the burden of care for the frail elderly traditionally falls. Medical science is one of the great triumphs of the last hundred years, but the challenge of how to cope with the burden of long dwindling deaths is not one which medicine can itself solve, at least any time soon it seems. Christ's death was a torture and a torment, and yet he is depicted as dying well, forgiving those who had conspired against him, commending his mother to the care of a disciple, and his own soul to God. Christians have always regarded this death as exemplary, but equally reckoned with the fact that for all others apart from Christ, dying well could not and should not be a solitary affair, but would have to rely crucially on the support and companionship of our fellows. Taking this point seriously, Dame Cicely Saunders responded to the bleak state of provision for the terminally ill some 50 years ago, with the founding of the hospice movement. It has transformed especially the care of those in the very last stages of cancer by providing this very companionship. We now face, however, a new and different challenge. The experience of the growing number of those who will endure a long dying will be a bitter one, as will the experience of the few who typically bear the heavy burden of care, unless we recognise a shared social responsibility to find radically new and effective ways to support and sustain those declining towards death. We can keep our fingers crossed that science will come to the rescue, but if and when it does, it will almost certainly be much too late for most of us.
本周早些时候，两家美国公司宣布他们已放弃对一种药的测试。人们曾对这种药寄予厚望，希望它能够治疗阿尔茨海默病。多年的研究工作和价值十多亿英镑的投资全都化为乌有。这使参与其中的研究者们大失所望。毫无疑问，感到更失望的是那些正处于早期痴呆阶段的患者们。一项众人期待已久的医学突破烟消云散了。当然，讽刺的是，此药的成功（并非失败）之处在于它带来了老龄化这一日趋显著的问题。这一药物成功地治愈了夺走我们祖父母的生命的疾病（如肺炎和流感），大大地延长了人们的寿命。但是一个新的问题伴随着出现了——尽管临终时期相对于一个健康的生命历程较为短暂，但是有40%多的人无法经历这样一个过程，他们要长期忍受着自己慢慢失去自理能力，身体日渐虚弱，还可能会患上痴呆症。我们的生命会更加长久，但我们可能会在死亡前的很长一段时间内拖着病弱之躯。此时人口情况正在发生变化，负责照顾体弱多病的老年人的中年人数量减少。医学在上世纪取得了重大突破，但它解决不了如何应对老龄化的问题，至少在当下是如此。基督的死亡是痛苦的，但被形容得很美好。他原谅了那些密谋陷害他的人，让母亲得到了一位门徒的照顾，并把自己的灵魂献给了上帝。基督徒们一直以来都以他的死亡为典范，但他们同时认为除了基督以外，得到善终并不是，也不能是只关系到个人的事情，它需要同伴们的支持和陪伴。大约50年前，西塞莉·桑德斯夫人为解决临终病人无人供养的问题创建了临终关怀医院。它通过给予陪伴改变了晚期病人，尤其是对处于癌症晚期的病人的看护形式。然而，我们如今面对的是一个截然不同的新挑战。我们必须意识到我们共同担负的社会责任，必须意识到我们要去寻找完全不同的有效途径来支持那些日渐衰老并走向死亡的人，否则将有更多不幸的人在漫长中等待死亡，而且没有多少人会去承担照料老人的重任。我们可以祈祷科学来拯救我们，但如果真的能够拯救，这一刻到来时，对我们大多数人而言已经太晚了。
