Compassionate End Of Life Care: Needed Focus On Suffering

Abstract

The historian Philippe Aries has described the transformation of dying through centuries, starting with “Tamed death,†in which death was familiar and people knew how to die; the dying and their families accepted death calmly; they knew when death was coming and what to do. Later came “One’s own death,†where death became more personalized. The dying had heaven to hope for or hell to fear; they had a stake in their death. The 18th century saw a shift in perspective towards “Thy deathâ€, where death began to be dramatized, revered and feared - it began to be understood as discrete from the normal ebb and flow of life. And with 20th century, with the arrival of science and the modern hospital, came “Forbidden death†where death is “unwanted and fought against … on the hospital bed, while one is unconscious, alone, and…[trying] to eschew death until the last minutes.â€