Learning from the past, planning for the future in the field of health

After fifty years, this sentence still applies and no other would be more appropriate for introducing this chapter. In 1978, as an introduction to the International Year of the Child, the Athens Symposium on 'The Child in the World of Tomorrow' (see Doxiadis, 1979, pp. xi-xvi) encouraged us to look at the future of children in the light of their past. Since then, the picture has changed drastically, and not exactly as we had hoped : in spite of unquestionable progress, the fate of many children of today remains critical, of a number of them, unbearable. Even if we restrict our analysis to European children, there are many failures, insufficiencies and shortcomings in the way they are cared for in today's families and societies. It is time to take a look back to try to evaluate what has been done since 1978, what has been missed, and to plan for a better future.