Sandman, Lars, A Good Death, On the Value of Death and Dying

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-82
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kraj
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death

scholarly journals Information in Pursuit of the "Good Death": Libraries’ Role in the Death Positivity Movement

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Chabot
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Collection Development ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
The North ◽  
Conference Theme ◽  
Culture Of Silence

The Death Positivity Movement (DPM) is a recent social and activist movement seeking to change the North American “culture of silence” surrounding death and dying. Seeking to engage with the conference theme of “conversations across boundaries,” this presentation presents arguments as to why libraries should be involved in the movement and also outlines more specifically actions that they can take to be involved. In this presentation, a short introduction to the DPM will be provided, followed by a brief discussion of the concept of the “good death”. Arguments will then be made explaining why libraries should be involved in the DPM and then the last section explores more specifically how libraries can be involved through collection development, community assistance and programming.

The Good Death, Virtue, and Physician-Assisted Death: An Examination of the Hospice Way of Death

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin G. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Voluntary Euthanasia ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Comfort Care ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right

The problem of physician-assisted death (PAD), assisted suicide and active euthanasia, has been debated predominantly in the ethically familiar vocabulary of rights, duties, and consequences. Patient autonomy and the right to die with dignity vie with the duty of physicians to heal, but not to kill, and the specter of “the slippery slope” from voluntary euthanasia as a last resort for patients suffering from terminal illness to PAD on demand and mercy killing of “hopeless” incompetent patients. Another dimension of the debate over PAD concerns the evaluative question of what constitutes a good death. At stake are Issues of character and virtue in the face of death and dying and their Implications for legitimizing the practice of PAD. Critics of PAD argue that “natural” death in the context of comfort care, as provided by hospice programs, is the good death. In contrast, PAD amounts to an easy way out, an evasion of the ultimate human challenge and task of dying. Because hospice care is clearly preferable to PAD, the former should be encouraged and the latter remain prohibited.

Remembering Patients who Die: Exploring the Meaning Conveyed in Notes to the Researcher

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. C. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Registered Nurses ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Patient Death ◽  
Daily Work

Nurses are confronted with the reality of death and dying as part of their profession and, often times, their daily work. The qualitative data in this article were compiled from unsolicited comments provided by respondents to a survey of Registered Nurses. Forty-eight nurses wrote notes to the researcher/author which, after analysis, were organized into two major themes. The first theme encompassed how patient deaths are remembered. The length of time since the death, details provided, and definitions of “good death” were identified as sub-themes. The second theme surrounded the effect that patient death experiences have on nurses. Implications of these data include the need to acknowledge patient death and the immense emotional toll it takes on nurses, as well as understanding that nurses are disenfranchised grievers.

Advance care tweeting: A mixed-methods analysis of online conversations surrounding National Healthcare Decisions Day hashtags on Twitter (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahleen A. Lattimer ◽  
Kelly E. Tenzek ◽  
Yotam Ophir ◽  
Suzanne S. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
The United States ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
National Healthcare ◽  
Advance Care Directives ◽  
Advance Care

BACKGROUND Within most Western societies, topics related to death and dying continue to be taboo, and opportunities for presence and engagement during end-of-life that could lead to a good death are avoided as a result. Several efforts have been made to help people engage in advance care planning (ACP) conversations, including completing advance care directives, so they may express their goals-of-care if they become too sick to communicate their wishes. One major effort in the United States towards encouraging such challenging discussions is the annual celebration of National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD). OBJECTIVE The present study explored ACP from a socio-cultural perspective, using Twitter as a communication tool. METHODS All publicly available tweets published between August 1st 2020 and July 30th 2021 (N = 9,713) were collected and analyzed using the computational, mixed-method Analysis of Topic Model Network (ANTMN) approach. RESULTS Results revealed conversations, driven primarily by laypersons (96% of tweets originated from unverified accounts) surrounded three major themes: importance and promotion, surrounding language, and finally, systemic issues. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results, we argue there is a need for awareness of what barriers people may face in engaging in ACP conversations, including systemic barriers, literacy levels, misinformation, policies, including Medicare reimbursements, and trust among health care professionals. This is incredibly important for clinicians and scholars to be aware of as we strive to re-envision ACP so that people are more comfortable engaging in ACP conversations. In terms of content of Tweets, we argue there is a chasm between the biomedical and biopsychosocial elements of ACP, including patient narratives. If used properly, Twitter conversations and NHDD hashtags could be harnessed to serve as a connecting point between organizations, physicians, patients and family members, to lay the groundwork for the trajectory towards a good death.

scholarly journals Is transhumanism the solution to euthanasia?

JAHR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Anna Bugajska
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Preliminary Assessment ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
Philosophical Framework

The article concentrates on the question of euthanasia in relation to the emerging life-extension technologies and the immortality industry within the philosophical framework of transhumanism. I begin by sketching the picture of human enhancement and immortality research and industry and pointing to its preliminary assessment of social impact, drawn by Jacobsen (2017). I present immortalism as a specific branch of transhumanism, leading to the rise of postmortal society informed by neohedonism and negative utilitarianism: oriented towards the pursuit of pleasure and minimization of suffering. I ask the question if in the postmortal society the problem of euthanasia will exist. To answer this question, firstly, I briefly present the changes in understanding the notion of a good death; secondly, I discuss the transhumanist approach to euthanasia. And thirdly, I point to the challenges to the biopolitics of death and dying in the postmortal society. The discussion of these areas leads to the conclusion that the problem of euthanasia in the postmortal society will not disappear; rather, it will become more aggravated due to the paradoxical nature of the transhumanist approach to death, personal freedom, autonomy, and dignity.

scholarly journals Guarding the gates of St Peter: life, death and law making

Legal Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Healthcare Ethics ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Making

In 2009 the legislature, judges and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) each turned their attention to issues around assisted suicide. The legislature decided not to change the law. The judges decided the existing law was insufficiently clear and required the Director to clarify it. The Director flirted with reforming the law, but then drew back from such a legislative role. His published prosecution policy has been considered as a contribution to the regulation of death and dying, and as such has been found wanting. However, considered in the context of the proper roles of Parliament, courts and prosecutors, and seen as an exercise in constitutional restraint, the Director's approach should be appraised rather differently. From this perspective, the decision of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in R (Purdy) v DPP raises significant concerns for the legitimacy of decision making in the contested moral issues that arise in healthcare ethics. In our democracy, courts should be wary of usurping legislative authority in areas where the Parliamentary position is clear. They should be reluctant to take sides in the protracted war over access to a ‘good death’.

scholarly journals DEATH NARRATIVE IN 19TH-CENTURY CHINA: HOW DID NEWSPAPERS FRAME DEATH AND DYING?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S275-S276
Author(s):  
Yifan Lou
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Death Narrative ◽  
The 19Th Century

Abstract This study explored the death narrative in the late Qin dynasty as expressed in Chinese newspapers in the 19th century. Using textual analysis to analyze the 646 pieces of news containing death-related topics, this study revealed the discourse regarding death and dying during this period can be understood at three levels: (a) euphemism of death: the language of death and its relationship with power and social hierarchy; (b)definition of “good death”: including preferences for location, cause, and experiences of death and dying; and (c) Western influence on the death narrative: missionaries’ efforts to incorporate Catholic and Chinese traditions to attract more believers. This paper argues that the current Chinese people’s perception of death is inherited and evolved from those historical roots, which has practical implications for the systematic development of hospice care in China. Suggestions include changing the language used in the hospice policy, emphasizing the importance of confidentiality in home-based hospice programs, and building a hospice system based on public perceptions of so-called “good death” while advocating for individualized definitions of this concept.

The discursive construction of the good death and the dying person

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leen Van Brussel ◽  
Nico Carpentier
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Symbolic Annihilation ◽  
The North ◽  
The Right ◽  
End Of Life Decision

The concept of a good death is central to contemporary discourses on death and dying; it is also frequently used in contexts of end-of-life decision-making. We argue that in and through the medical-revivalist discourse, which challenges the idea that curative treatment is necessary beneficial and constructs death as something familiar, a good death is discursively organised around two nodal clusters: control, autonomy and dignity, and awareness and heroism. Moreover, we also argue that — within this framework of the medical-revivalist discourse — political contestation exists over the articulation of these nodal points. Especially two social movements, the right to die movement and the palliative care movement, have been at the forefront of the political struggle over the good death. In this article, we use a discourse-theoretical approach to develop an analytical model of the construction of the good death and the present-day political struggles over these constructions. This model then allows us to identify and analyse the constructions of the good death in the North Belgian newspaper coverage on three 2008 euthanasia cases. Using discourse-theoretical analysis (DTA) (Carpentier & De Cleen, 2007), our analysis shows that the articulations of the right to die variation are privileged in the newspaper coverage. There is a celebration of the extraordinariness and heroism of the dying subject who autonomously chooses on how and when to die and who preferably dies in a state of full awareness so that he can die with dignity. This privileging is often accompanied by the symbolic annihilation of many other ways of dying. Consequentially, the richness of ways of dying that characterize contemporary social realities becomes curtailed in the analysed newspaper representations.

The “good death”: An integrative literature review

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 686-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cottrell ◽  
Wendy Duggleby
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractObjective:The “good death” is a dynamic concept and has evolved over time to become a “revivalist” good death: a planned, peaceful, and dignified death, at home, surrounded by family members. As the “good death” continues to evolve, the key questions are: How do cultural perceptions of death and dying change? What are the forces that shape Western attitudes and beliefs around death and dying? And how does the “good death” discourse frame the dying experience in contemporary society? The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the underlying discourse in the literature on the “good death” in Western societies.Method:An integrative literature review of data from experimental and nonexperimental sources in PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and SocINDEX of 39 articles from 1992 to 2014.Results:Four main themes emerged from reviewing 39 articles on the “good death”: (1) the “good death” as control, (2) the wrong “good death,” (3) the threatened “good death,” and (4) the denial of dying.Significance of Results:Evolving in response to prominent social attitudes and values, the contemporary “good death” is a powerful, constraining discourse that limits spontaneity and encourages one way to die. Social, political, and demographic changes now threaten the stability of the “good death”; dying is framed as an increasingly negative or even unnecessary process, thus marginalizing the positive aspects of dying and rendering dying absent, invisible.

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