BMJ  2007;334 (10 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39147.418310.43

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

Memento mori

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Next week in London a taster for the Wellcome Collection goes on display for a few brief hours. It includes a male figure—part human body, part skeleton—belonging to the long tradition of memento mori ("remember that you must die") (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39146.630775.DB). These images were a favourite of medieval religious art, and there are good arguments for introducing them into today's general practices and hospitals. Doctors as well as patients would benefit from reminders of our mortality.

Caricatured until the 20th century as agents who hastened your death (and took your money), doctors are now most likely caricatured as those who unnaturally prolong your life (and squander millions in their ultimately futile battle against death). Unfortunately, confirmation of this modern caricature is distressingly easy to find—see this week's personal view (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39127.437998.59). "As each weekend approached the risk loomed of an out of hours admission from which his own . . . [Full text of this article]

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