On The Medical Profession's Approach to Hope

"This is something I discovered along the way. (Surviving terminally diagnosed cancer.)

There seems to be a great fear of something known as "false hope."

I've heard the phrase used by Doctors and Nurses again and again in very self-congratulatory ways, as if by exterminating it, they were providing a great philanthropic service to the community.

Now I've scratched my way through this world as nothing, if not a pessimist.
And I will state, unequivocally, that there is no such thing as false hope. It's an oxymoron. It can't exist.
Hope has no connotations of certainty.
Hope carries no assurance of success.
Hope is the one thing in this world that can never, ever be false.
Hope is just exactly what it says; a longing, a desire.
Is there such a thing as a false aching desire?"

~Evan Handler, "Time on Fire, My Comedy of Terrors"
Star of Sex and The City, and Californication,
from an interview with The People's Pharmacy Show 702