Besides birth, there is nothing more inherent to life than death and the process of dying—despite the off-quoted aphorism including taxes in that list. Although that notion of inherency seems obvious, there is much evidence to indicate that many human beings go to considerable effort to avoid the reality of the naturalness of death. On one level, that is understandable, as we are indeed born with a struggle to survive for as long as we can. But a more reasoned level should remind us that recognition of the inherency of death requires a different approach and an ability to confront reality and be able to talk about it. The research on dying and death issues from a communication perspective focuses on the struggle to move to that level of acceptance and to dialogue about it. That is the focus of this bibliography. It should be noted that much of the medical literature that addresses the topic culminates in the same exhortation: We need more communication at end of life. This simplistic conceptualization that “more” is “better” does little to expand our understanding of the process of communication during the terminal stages of life. An attempt has been made to include as little of the “more is better” writing as possible. Death, like health and illness, is socially constructed. What we come to see as “natural” is instead a construction based on language and culture, which becomes relevant not only to historically changing views of death but also to cultural differences. Historically, a good life was associated with a good death. That conceptualization is still true in some cultures, but that association has disappeared in many modern views. Instead, death avoidance has become predominant, and there is frequently a general desire for death to be seen as being separate from life, rather than a natural part of life. After covering some core texts, journals, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches, this bibliography moves to a focus on palliative team care and related processes. This emphasis reflects the dominance of palliative team care (simultaneous with curative care, in most cases) in the dying process. Some processes related to palliative team care follow, including hospice, children, families, spirituality/religion, cultural issues, death fear/avoidance, the tension between maintaining hope and allowing openness, advance directives, bad news/prognosis, and issues focused particularly on care providers. This bibliography culminates with a discussion of ethical concerns, although ethics are inherent in all work on this topic.
Death, Dying, and Communication