When you prepare to talk about end-of-life decisions and the legacy you want to leave behind, try thinking about them as gifts you bestow to family and friends.
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Articles on Talking about death and dying
Displaying 1 - 20 of 22 articles
Perceptions about coronavirus “only killing old people” highlight the ageist way we sometimes refer to death and dying. Greek myth shows this isn’t new and ancient plays laid out the distinction.
Many in the Western world lack the explicit mourning rituals that help people deal with loss. On Day of the Dead, two scholars describe ancient mourning practices.
The pain of grief is part of human existence. Daoist and Confucian philosophy can help find meaning in grief.
For medieval cultures, the dying process and death itself was a ‘transition,’ not a rupture.
How best do we teach our kids that the world is not always as we’d like it to be? The ‘when’ can be out of parents’ control, but there are parts of the ‘how’ that are more manageable.
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.
Conversations around end-of-life medical care can be challenging. Consider someone I’ll call Mrs. Jones, an elderly patient with advanced heart disease. When her doctor asked her to discuss the kind of…
What’s the first thing you are told to do when a loved one dies? If they die in a medical or residential care institution, which happens in more than 85% of cases in Australia, a funeral director is your…
Every year around half a million people die in England. The success of medicine over the past decades has led to a sustained rise in the average human life expectancy: a third of children born today will…
“I want an untamed, beautiful death. So I think we should have a competition in dying, sort of like Halloween costumes,” wrote Anatole Broyard in his pathography, Intoxicated by my Illness, written in…
Contrary to the popular wisdom that it’s a taboo subject, we love discussing death. Dead bodies fascinate us and some of our favourite television shows have been about death and forensic pathology. But…
It’s not always easy to talk to someone who is dying. Conversations about future plans and wishes may appear insensitive and fuelled with great pain and distress when it’s somebody we love. For some, not…
As an intensive care physician I’m increasingly confronted with managing patients who are at the end of their life. Australians need to be aware that the way that they will spend the last few days or weeks…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - We end this series today with an account of one man’s experience of cancer. Bowel Cancer? Me? How could that be? I’ve been so fit throughout my life, eaten porridge, been…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - We can choose so many of our life experiences, but it seems we can have no say in whether we die in pain or at peace. Today we consider why we don’t have a policy on physician-assisted…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Can we be forced to live despite our wish to have our lives end at some natural point? What options do we have for having a say in how and when we are to die? Today we look…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – What are the cultural and historical and reasons for not talking about death? Today, we have a philosopher’s perspective on the silence that is seeing so many die without…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Why don’t we talk about death and dying? A simple albeit difficult conversation could mean the difference between a peaceful and undignified death for individuals, between…
TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Why is it we don’t talk about the greatest inevitability in our lives? We explore the consequences of this silence in this series, today considering the issue from…
Top contributors
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Professor of Intensive Care, UNSW Sydney
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Reader, Goldsmiths, University of London
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NIHR Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine, King's College London
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Lecturer in Nursing, University of Birmingham
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Director, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
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Adjunct Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Education; Curriculum Director, UQ Critical Thinking Project, The University of Queensland
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Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
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Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics, The University of Queensland
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Professor in Critical Care Nursing, Griffith University
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Emeritus professor, Southern Cross University
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Emeritus professor, University of Wollongong
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Professor of Accounting, University of Wollongong
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Lecturer of Folklore, Indiana University
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Professor, English and Folklore Studies, University of Oregon
