The extinction crisis creates a need to increase conservation funding and use it more efficiently. Most conservation resources are allocated through inefficient political processes that seem ill equipped for dealing with the crisis. In response, conservation triage emerged as a metaphor for thinking about the optimization of resource allocation. Because triage operates primarily as a metaphor, not means for allocating resources, its metaphorical implications are of particular importance. Of particular concern, the triage metaphor justifies abandoning some species while acquiescing to inadequate conservation funding. We argue conservation hospice provides an alternative medical metaphor for thinking about the extinction crisis. Hospice is based on the underlying principle of caring for all (species) and places particular emphasis on expected survival time, symptom burden and relief, treatments, ability to “stay at home” (i.e., in situ conservation), and maintaining support for related species and landscapes. Ultimately, application of hospice principles may be ethically obligated for a society that accepts the idea that least some organisms are intrinsically valuable and may help place emphasis on resource allocation issues without providing implicit justification for abandoning species to extinction.

中文翻译：

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保育临终关怀：一个更好的隐喻保护和照顾终端物种

灭绝危机导致需要增加保护资金并更有效地使用它。大多数保护资源是通过低效的政治进程分配的，这些进程似乎没有能力应对危机。作为回应，保护分类作为思考资源分配优化的隐喻而出现。因为分类主要作为一种隐喻，而不是分配资源的手段，它的隐喻意义特别重要。特别令人担忧的是，分类隐喻证明放弃某些物种是正当的，同时默许保护资金不足。我们认为保护性临终关怀为思考灭绝危机提供了另一种医学隐喻。临终关怀基于照顾所有人（物种）的基本原则，并特别强调预期存活时间、症状负担和缓解、治疗、“呆在家里”的能力（即原位保护），以及维持对相关人员的支持。物种和景观。归根结底，对于接受至少某些生物具有内在价值的观点的社会来说，应用临终关怀原则可能是道德上的义务，并且可能有助于将重点放在资源分配问题上，而无需为放弃物种灭绝提供隐含的理由。