Hospital Palliative Care at the End of Life
“Death is terrifying”, writes the author Susan Cheever, “…because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time”. Continue reading
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New ESRC-Funded Project “Dying in the Margins” Investigates How Socio-Economic Deprivation Effects End of Life Experiences and Ability to Die at Home
We are all aware of the headlines about the impact of government austerity measures on communities up and down the UK. But what impact has austerity had on people’s experiences of dying and, specifically, their ability to die in their own home? What is it like to be facing death in materially constrained circumstances in… Continue reading
Learning From End-of-Life Care Challenges Faced in Hong Kong and Singapore
As the trends of population growth and aging further the need to expand end of life care globally, it is important to understand that conceptions of appropriate end of life care vary cross-culturally. This global dimension is at the forefront of The End of Life Studies Group’s research. On the 15th of May, the Group… Continue reading
Suffering and Autonomy at the End of Life – University of Glasgow Conference April 2018
Cicely Saunders once stated that ‘suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares’. Yet suffering is a broad concept with many aspects. Members from the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group recently attended a two-day philosophy conference entitled ‘Suffering and Autonomy at the End of Life’. Speakers came from a range of academic disciplines – including… Continue reading
It’s good to talk, but watch your euphemisms: discussing death and dying with children and young adults
I drive past a statue of Jean Armour, the wife of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, every morning on the way to work. When my 4 year old daughter, travelling with me, asked me about the statue, I told her it was to celebrate the life of someone who had died; that the woman must… Continue reading
Assisted suicide as a remedy for suffering? The end-of-life preferences of British “suicide tourists”
Individuals’ aesthetic preferences for a good death are as significant as physical suffering in decisions to opt for an assisted suicide. This is the main finding from my anthropological study, now available as an open access article Assisted Suicide as a Remedy for Suffering? The End-of-Life Preferences of British “Suicide Tourists” in the journal Medical Anthropology.… Continue reading
Autonomy and creativity at the end of life
What does it mean to have a good death? The best way of answering this question takes us via a philosophical theory of the good life. Central to living a good life is the value of autonomy: deciding for yourself what is valuable and living your life in accordance with that decision. Autonomy is an… Continue reading
Palliative care or assisted dying? We just need to start talking more about ‘the right to die well’
In most parts of the world the proponents of palliative care and of assisted dying do not see eye to eye. Palliative care activists say the problems that lead to assisted dying requests can usually be dealt with in ways that do not hasten death. They promote quality of life and reject the idea of… Continue reading