Our contacts at Age Scotland invited me to hold a death café with their members, and they also asked me to give a lecture about the ideas behind the international death café movement. As a new lecturer in end of life studies here at the University of Glasgow, I thought this would be an excellent… Continue reading
I have been interested in the history of palliative care for over 20 years. I first got going on this work with Neil Small by conducting interviews with hospice founders in the United Kingdom and we then collaborated with Michelle Winslow and Nic Hughes on a general interest book about hospice pioneers. Later I worked… Continue reading
Pain is a far-reaching phenomenon, present in all of our lives, whether it be the daily pain of hunger, the pain of loss, of bereavement, or following trauma, a heart attack or long-term disease, even terminal cancer. Untreated pain is a great burden – to individuals who suffer emotionally and are predisposed to further complications… Continue reading
75% of the world’s population have no – or inadequate – access to controlled medicines for pain relief. This means that, for many people, a diagnosis of a serious illness such as cancer brings not only a traumatic confrontation with mortality, but also the fear – and reality – of excruciating pain. Pain serves the evolutionary… Continue reading
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
The first national atlas of palliative care in the world, the Scottish Atlas of Palliative Care, received considerable attention on the day it was launched. On Thursday 22 September 2016 I travelled to the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, to launch the Scottish Atlas at the annual conference of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. Everyone at… Continue reading
We invited Orkney International Science Festival visitors to take part in a series of discussions about spirituality, ethics and compassionate communities at the end of life in September 2016. The festival’s director Howie Firth describes the annual event as, “something for the whole community to enjoy, something fresh and creative, with surprises and excitement and sheer… Continue reading
When we started our study of palliative care declarations little did I know that this apparently small-scale desk-based study would unfold into an exciting expedition, offering opportunities far beyond its original scope. Well over a year ago, in May 2015, I wrote a blog outlining our plan for studying palliative care declarations listing the declarations… Continue reading
