Changing concepts of death: clinical care.

Abstract The words clinic and clinical are derived from the Greek word for bed or couch. Traditionally that is where patients find themselves when they are sick; that is where clinical observations are made and where clinical care is rendered, in a hospital ward, outpatient clinic, or, more traditionally, by the bedside at home. Clinical observations and clinical care are made or given by professionals, a fact that accounts for a secondary dictionary meaning of clinical, namely, “objective” or “dispassionate”. It is this component of professionalism that has led in turn to the somewhat unfortunate expression “coldly clinical”. This more recent emphasis on the noncaring elements implied by the word itself is surely due to the enormous growth of scientific and technological aspects of medicine and often a concomitant loss of those essential human qualities that formed the cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship in traditional medical practice.