Most people in western societies die in hospital or in institutional care. Keeping death out of sight and out of mind means few people have real experience of death and dying.
The concept of a timely and dignified death has been replaced by an imperative to keep us alive at all costs.
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We all die eventually, of course, but these days it's very hard for doctors and loved ones to let patients and relatives die without doing "whatever it takes".
Our tendency to think that we will “beat the odds” is risky, and mostly wrong.
malik ml williams
For most of us, death conjures up strong feelings. We project all kinds of fears onto it. We worry about it, dismiss it, laugh it off, push it aside or don’t think about it at all. Until we have to. Of…
Most children have never had legal capacity and are reliant on parents to make health-care decisions for them.
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The diagnosis of a palliative illness in a child or adolescent is devastating for all involved: parents, family members and the children themselves, as they grieve for life they had planned and believed…
Just 14% of Australians have an advance care plan.
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More than half of Australians have a will (59%) to determine how their property will be divided after they die. And 30% have appointed a power of attorney to make financial decisions if they lose the capacity…
We all have the legal right to refuse health care.
Warren Goldswain
Have you thought about how you would want to be treated if you cannot make your own decisions? You may be unconscious after car accident, you may be so ill you cannot communicate, or you may be dying and…
The majority of Australians want to die at home but just 14% are able to do so.
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The baby boomers are growing old and in the next 25 years the number of Australians who die each year will double. People want to die comfortably at home, supported by family and friends and effective…
We live in an era when chronically ill people are exposed to technological interventions that may not serve them well.
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Allowing people with incurable and unsupportable illness to die is ethically acceptable to most people, even though it’s unlikely there will ever be unanimity about when and how we allow such deaths. But…
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prevents many deaths across the world, but it doesn’t bring dead people back to life.
NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan
Not content with saving lives, doctors are now credited with (accused of?) bringing the dead back to life. But how true are the stories we hear about people “coming back” from being dead and how does it…