全球死亡質量排名：英國居首位

Britain may not be the best place to live, but it is the best place to die.
英國可能不是最適宜居住的地方，但卻是最適合死的地方。

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked the country first in its latest quality-of-death index, which uses 20 quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the effectiveness of end-of-life care in 80 countries. The measures include the the quality of palliative care, affordability, the health care environment, and community engagement.
《經濟學人》信息部（EIU）在其最新的“死亡質量指數”排名上將英國排在第一位，這一指數運用20個定量和定性指標，對80個國家的臨終關懷效率進行分析。這些指標包括臨終關懷質量、經濟負擔能力、醫療環境和社會參與度。

How we die is becoming a critical topic as populations live longer, often with multiple diseases requiring complex (and costly) management. Developing countries in particular grapple with how to deliver basic pain relief to the dying. Some have seen notable improvements in recent years: Uganda has dramatically increased the availability of morphine through a public-private partnership between the health ministry and Hospice Africa, a British charity.
隨着人類壽命的延長，各種疾病要求很複雜（且昂貴）的護理，如何度過生命的最後時光正逐漸成爲一個重要問題。發展中國家更是苦於如何爲病危的人提供緩解痛苦的服務。有些國家近幾年取得了一些顯著的進步：在烏干達，當地衛生部與英國慈善機構非洲臨終關懷中心（Hospice Africa）建立了公私合作關係，極大地推廣了嗎啡在非洲的使用。

Not surprisingly, rich countries generally did better than poor ones in the rankings. But there are noteworthy variations: the US came in ninth place with a score of 80.8 (out of 100), far below the 93.9 score achieved by Britain, where complaining about health care is as popular as grumbling about the weather.
不出所料，富裕的國家通常都比貧窮的國家排名靠前，但也有些值得注意的變化：美國以80.8分（100分制）排名第九，遠低於英國的93.9分，主要原因是美國的醫療衛生系統飽受詬病。

滿分爲100分

Costa Rica ranks top among middle-income countries, thanks in part to extensive volunteer networks that support public services, according to the EIU.
哥斯達黎加（Costa Rica）在中等收入國家中排名第一，據EIU分析，這一結果部分得益於該國廣泛的志願者系統爲公共服務提供了很多支持。

The most striking finding in the report is that Mongolia, a poor country with few provisions for end-of-life care in 2000, now leads the low-income countries with a score of 57.7, which puts it 28th overall, above a host of more advanced economies. It “overachieves by some margin given its resources,” according to the EIU.
報告中最令人驚訝的是蒙古，它在2000年時還是一個對臨終關懷投入很少的貧窮國家，現在卻得分57.7，在低收入國家中位居第一，總排名28，超過了許多更先進的國家。EIU的報告稱，“鑑於蒙古的資源狀況，該國真是超額完成了任務。”

Remarkably, Mongolia’s performance is largely attributed to the work of a single doctor, Odontuya Davaasuren, a pediatrician who learned about the latest advancements in end-of-life care at a conference in Sweden and brought some of the ideas back to her home country. When Davaasuren set up the Mongolian Palliative Care Society (MPCS) in 2000, the country had no hospices or palliative care teaching programs. “We did not even have the terminology for palliative care,” she says.
值得一提的是，蒙古取得如此驕人的成績，很大程度上要歸功於一位醫生的努力。她叫Odontuya Davaasuren，是一名兒科醫生，她在瑞典的一次醫學會議上了解到了臨終關懷的最新進展，並把一些觀念帶回了祖國。2000年，Davaasuren醫生創立了蒙古臨終關懷中心（Mongolian Palliative Care Society，MPCS），當時整個國家都沒有臨終關懷的教育體系。“我們當時甚至都沒有臨終關懷的專業術語，”Davaasuren醫生說道。

According to the EIU, her work helped establish 10 palliative-care facilities in Ulaanbaatar, with provincial hospitals also now able to accommodate patients in need of such care. Palliative care is now included in health and welfare legislation, and taught at medical schools. Affordable morphine is now available and prescribed more widely. The country is also now expanding non-cancer and pediatric palliative-care services, in addition to “outpatient consultation and nursing, home care, and spiritual and social services,” Davaasuren says.
EIU的報告稱，在Davaasuren醫生的努力下，烏蘭巴托成立了10家臨終關懷中心，各省級醫院也能夠爲病人提供此類服務。臨終關懷現已被納入健康和福利立法當中，各醫學院校也開設了相關課程。價格親民的麻醉劑應用越來越廣泛，規定也更加寬泛。蒙古還推行非癌症和兒童療養服務，除此之外，“門診會診、普通護理、家庭護理、精神和社會服務也在進行。”Davaasuren醫生說道。

In spite of recent progress around the world, the EIU notes that experts estimate that globally less than 10 percent of people who require end-of-life care actually receive it.
儘管近年來全球在臨終關懷方面取得了進步，但是EIU指出，專家估計，全球只有不到10%的人真正得到了所需的臨終關懷。

Vocabulary

palliative care: 臨終關懷
pediatric: 小兒科的