Summary
In the first four sections of this paper, an analysis is made of the meaning and the of the term ‘quality of life’ in medicine and health care. It is shown that the term refers to different concepts such as normal functioning, satisfaction with life, and level of human development. The term was at first no more than a vehicle for critique on a medicine that was fixated on prolongation of life and containment of disease processes. Later it was used to refer to more positive criteria for evaluating the medical effectiveness and the economic cost-effectiveness of treatments and other health care provisions.
In the last section the relevance of quality-of-life-considerations for the care for the handicapped is discussed.
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Musschenga, A.W. (1994). Quality of Life and Handicapped People. In: Nordenfelt, L. (eds) Concepts and Measurement of Quality of Life in Health Care. European Studies in Philosophy of Medicine 1, vol 47. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8344-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8344-2_11
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