[State of the art 2007].

The beginning of the modern hospice movement and palliative medicine relates to the recognition of the fact that a cure-oriented health care system often neglects the critically ill and the dying in terms of appropriate treatment and human care. Therefore, the idea was born to offer comprehensive medical, nursing, psychological, social and spiritual care for these patients and their families at a suitable location . This first location was St Christopher's Hospice in London; the starting point of a still ongoing humanly and ethically demanded development.