Dying, a Lost Art

Dugdale, Lydia S.

doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262029124.003.0001

Cited by 10 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…11 These changes have not only provided physicians more power to engage in diagnosis and treatment processes but also provoked a paradigm shift in the end-of-life issues and the perception of death and dying. 12 Daniel Callahan describes this situation as "[t]he transformation of death from a biological evil to a moral evil" because increasing possibilities of medical interventions have brought about a moral debate regarding the boundaries and goals of medicine (p. 60). 11 Technological advances, medical developments, and public health improvements have generated a higher life expectancy with many chronic diseases, long-term treatments, and a prolonged dying process.…”

Section: Goals Of Medicine In End-of-lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The Goals of Medicine and Compassion in the Ethical Assessment of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Relieving Pain and Suffering by Protecting, Promoting, and Maintaining the Person’s Well-Being

Avci

2022

J Palliat Care

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Arguments regarding the goals of medicine in end-of-life occupy a prominent place in the debate on life-ending medical interventions. The discussions in favor of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide focus on relieving patients’ intractable pain and suffering to justify the physician's active engagement in killing. Furthermore, the arguments that claim the existence of intractable suffering vindicates euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are predicated upon compassion in the first instance. The present article concisely studies the goals of medicine and compassion to evaluate their utilization in the ethical justification of life-ending interventions to draw normative conclusions on that basis. The article concludes that relieving a person's unbearable pain and suffering is a crucial goal of medicine, but this goal should be accomplished through morally acceptable means, not euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. Medicine intends to protect, promote, and maintain the person's physical and psychological wellbeing. Considering euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide an appropriate means to achieve these goals may dramatically impair the therapeutic relationship for patients who regard the physician as a healer. In respect of compassion, the article deduces that even though playing an important role in the patient-physician relationship, compassion does not produce an objective, reliable, and applicable standard to appraise the ethical assessment of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide because compassion derives from feelings that vary from person to person according to their social, cultural, religious, or political stances and values. The article proposes interpreting the goals of medicine and the concept of compassion in line with giving suffering people adequate and appropriate medical, palliative, spiritual, and emotional care in light of the dedication of medicine to people's health and welfare and the requirement of compassion to help suffering individuals in a constructive course of action.

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Section: Goals Of Medicine In End-of-lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The Goals of Medicine and Compassion in the Ethical Assessment of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Relieving Pain and Suffering by Protecting, Promoting, and Maintaining the Person’s Well-Being

Avci

2022

J Palliat Care

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“… Ridenour and Cahill (2015 : 107) write that ‘the human reality of death brings with it basic human needs, threats of suffering, and moral responsibilities that are shared across traditions and that require a communal response of “accompanying” the dying’. Drawing on this claim, Dugdale (2015 : 183) argues that one component of a good death is a strong sense of community as ‘it clarifies our sense of self, upholds us in our weakness, and facilitates the achievement of an art of dying well’. While the presence of the medical team and other members of society (e.g.…”

Section: Harm and Burden Minimizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the presence of the medical team and other members of society (e.g. fellow religious members) could contribute to a sense of community and a good death, ‘most dying patients share the messiness of death with only a select few’ ( Dugdale, 2015 : 184). Other than easing their separation anxieties, fears and distress, PFP could empower the isolated individual in the eyes of relatives, such that a loved one’s final moments are laid in dignity and peace or, for those estranged, redeemed in ‘saving grace’ and reconciliation.…”

Section: Harm and Burden Minimizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient Isolation during Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Arguments for Physical Family Presence

Voo

Lederman²,

Kaur

2020

Public Health Ethics

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This article argues that outbreak preparedness and response should implement a ‘family presence’ policy for infected patients in isolation that includes the option of physical visits and care within the isolation facility under some conditions. While such a ‘physical family presence’ (PFP) policy could increase infections during an outbreak and may raise moral dilemmas, we argue that it is ethically justified based on the least infringement principle and the need to minimize the harms and burdens of isolation as a restrictive measure. Categorical prohibition of PFP during the course of an outbreak or epidemic is likely to result in unnecessary harms to patients and families, and violate values such as the moral commitments of families to care for each other. Supporting the option of PFP under particular circumstances, on the other hand, will least infringe these moral considerations. An additional reason for a family presence policy is that it may facilitate voluntary cooperation with isolation and other restrictive measures. We provide an analysis of these considerations for supporting modes of family presence during an outbreak emergency, before defending the riskier option of PFP in the isolation facility from plausible objections and concerns.

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“…edical and technological advances have made it possible to keep people alive well beyond what was once possible, leading health care providers to focus on life-sustaining measures rather than questioning the futility of such measures and considering quality of life. 1 Technology and the shift from religious practitioners as the overseers of death to the medical practitioner as the expert over the human body have driven the locus of death from the community toward the impersonal and sterile setting of the medical institution. 2 In the secular and medical environment of the acute care setting, death is often identified with illness and viewed as a purely medical event, at times a medical failure, as opposed to the historical view that death has sacred significance as a natural part of life.…”

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confidence: 99%

Applying Lessons From Ars Moriendi to Foster Dying Well in Acute Care Settings

Forte,

Larkin

2024

J Hosp Palliat Nurs

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Medical and technological advances have made it possible to keep people alive well beyond what was once possible, leading health care providers to focus on life-sustaining measures rather than questioning the futility of such measures and considering quality of life. In the midst of the struggle to foster dying well in a medicalized environment, acute care nurses may be challenged with shifting the focus to providing optimal end-of-life care because of lack of training, time, and resources. A remedy for the current western societal approach to medicalized dying is to look back in history to a time during the late Middle Ages, when death was an accepted part of medieval life. A literary genre called Ars Moriendi (translated “the art of dying”) was written and illustrated to provide instruction on how to die well and how to care for the dying. Nurses can apply lessons from this text to fulfill the ethical obligation to practice with dignity and provide compassionate end-of-life care. These lessons include helping patients and families identify goals of care and accept finitude, encouraging the participation of loved ones at the bedside, and fostering reconciliation at the end of life.

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Dying, a Lost Art

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

The Goals of Medicine and Compassion in the Ethical Assessment of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Relieving Pain and Suffering by Protecting, Promoting, and Maintaining the Person’s Well-Being

The Goals of Medicine and Compassion in the Ethical Assessment of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Relieving Pain and Suffering by Protecting, Promoting, and Maintaining the Person’s Well-Being

Patient Isolation during Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Arguments for Physical Family Presence

Applying Lessons From Ars Moriendi to Foster Dying Well in Acute Care Settings

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