The emerging debate about what is a "good death" and whether
individuals have a responsibility to die well usually calls attention to the evils
attendant upon either participating or not in active forms of killing. In this
article the author argues that we should avoid another kind of evil, that of an
excessive reliance on medical concepts and values to define the dying process and
the resultant image of death as the enemy. The author discusses a possible
foundation for an obligation to accept death and develops related constructs:
readiness to die, knowing when it is time to die, and the will to die. The last
section argues for a shift from a commitment to prolonging life to an affirmation of
dying, a more balanced view that values confronting the experience of and making
choices in the face of finitude and death.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albom, M.
(1997). Tuesdays with Morrie. New
York: Doubleday.
2.
Allport, G.
(1961). Pattern and growth in personality.
New York: Holt, Rinehart
& Winston.
3.
Aries, P.
(1981). The hour of our death (H. Weaver, Trans.).
New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
4.
Battin, M.P.
(1987). Age rationing and the just distribution of health care: Is there a duty to
die?Ethics, 97,
317-340.
5.
Becker, E.
(1973). The denial of death. New
York: Free Press.
6.
Boerstler, R.W.
(1982). Letting go-A holistic and meditative
approach to living and dying. South Yarmouth,
MA: Associates in
Thanatology.
7.
Boerstler, R.W.
(1986). Meditation and the dying process. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 26,
104-124.
8.
Brown, N.
(1959). Life against death: The psychoanalytic meaning of
history. Middletown, CT:
Wesleyan University Press.
9.
Bugental, J.
(1981). The search for authenticity.
New York:
Irvington.
10.
Callahan, D.
(1993). The troubled dream of life: In search of a peaceful
death. New York: Simon
& Schuster.
11.
Callahan, D.
(1995). Setting limits: Medical goals in an aging
society. Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press.
12.
Choron, J.
(1964). Death and modern man. New
York: Collier Books.
13.
Connelly, R.J.
(1998). Death with dignity: Fifty years of soul-searching. Journal of Religion and Health, 37,
195-213.
14.
Corr, C.
(1992). A task-based approach to coping with dying. Omega, 24,
81-94.
15.
Ditto, P.
, Danks, J., Smucker, W., Bookwala, J., Coppola, K., Dresser, R., et al. (2001). Advance directives as acts of communication: A randomized controlled
trial. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161,
421-430.
16.
Edwards, M.E.
(1979). How my father died: A story of participation and revelation. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 19,
57-65.
17.
Feifel, H.
(1969). Attitudes toward death. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33, 292.
18.
Feuerbach, L.
(1980). Thoughts on death and immortality (J. Massey,
Trans.). Berkeley: University of
California Press.
19.
Frankl, V.E.
(1963). Man's search for meaning.
New York: Washington
Square.
20.
Grof, S.
(1994). Books of the dead. New
York: Thames &
Hudson.
21.
Grof, S.
(1998). The cosmic game. New
York: State University of New York
Press.
22.
Grof, S.
(2000). Psychology of the future.
New York: State University of New
York Press.
23.
Groth-Marnat, G.
, & Summers, R. (1998). Altered beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors following near-death
experiences. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 38,
110-125.
24.
Hardwig, J.
(1997). Is there a duty to die?Hastings Center Report, 27,
34-42.
25.
Heidegger, M.
(1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E.
Robinson, Trans.). London: SCM
Press.
26.
Henk, J.
, & Keown, J. (1999). Voluntary euthanasia under control? Further empirical evidence from the
Netherlands. Journal of Medical Ethics, 25,
16-21.
27.
Hopkins, P.
(1997). Why does removing machines count as 'passive'
euthanasia?Hastings Center Report, 27,
29-37.
28.
Humber, J.M.
, & Almeder, R.F. (Eds.). (2000). Is there a duty to die? (Biomedical Ethics
Review, 17). Totowa, NJ: Humana
Press.
29.
James, W.
(1956). The will to believe and other essays in popular
philosophy. New York:
Dover. (Original work published 1897)
30.
Kant, I.
(1963). Lectures on ethics (L. Infield, Trans., p.
152). New York: Harper
& Row. (Original translated work published
1931)
31.
Kelly, G.
(1957). Medico-moral problems (p. 129).
St. Louis, MO: Catholic Hospital
Association.
32.
Kessler, B.
(1987). Bereavement and personal growth. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 27,
228-247.
33.
Koestenbaum, P.
(1976). Is there an answer to death?Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
34.
Kübler-Ross, E.
(1969). On death and dying. New
York: Macmillan.
35.
Lonetto, R.
, & Templar, D.I. (1986). Death anxiety. Washington,
DC: Hemisphere.
36.
Mahrer, A.
(1989). Experiencing. Ottawa,
Canada: University of Ottawa
Press.
37.
Marshall, P.
(1995). The SUPPORT study: Who's talking. Hastings Center Report, 25,
S9-S11.
38.
Maslow, A.
(1968). Toward a psychology of being.
New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold.
39.
May, R.
(1996). The meaning of anxiety. New
York: Norton.
40.
McFall, L.
(1987). Integrity. Ethics, 98,
5-20.
41.
Mitford, J.
(1963). The American way of death.
New York: Simon &
Schuster.
42.
Miyuki, M.
(1978). Dying isagi-yoku. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 18,
37-44.
43.
Moss, M.
, & Moss, S. (1983-1984). The impact of parental death on middle aged children. Omega, 14,
65-75.
44.
Niemeyer, R.A.
, Bagley, K.J., & Moore, M.K. (1986). Cognitive structure and death anxiety. Death Studies, 10,
273-278.
45.
Pope Pius XII
. (1958). The prolongation of life.The Pope Speaks, 4,
395-398.
46.
Quimby, S.L.
(1989). The near-death experience as an event in consciousness. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 29,
87-108.
47.
Rachels, J.
(1975). Active and passive euthanasia. New England Journal of Medicine, 292,
78-80.
48.
Rachels, J.
(1979). Killing and starving to death. Philosophy, 54,
159-171.
49.
Rogers, C.
(1980). A way of being. New
York: Houghton Mifflin.
50.
Rowan, J.
(1998). The reality game. New
York: Routledge.
51.
Sehgal, A.
, Weisheit, C., Miura, Y., Butzlaff, M., Kielstein, R., & Taguchi, Y. (1996). Advance directives and withdrawal of dialysis in the U.S., Germany, and
Japan. Journal of the American Medical Association, 276,
1652-1656.
52.
Simpson, M.A.
(1979). Social and psychological aspects of
dying. In H. Wass (Ed.), Dying: Facing the facts (pp.
108-124). Washington, DC:
Hemisphere.
53.
Simpson, R.
(1992). Nursing ethics and euthanasia. Canadian Nurse, 88,
36-38.
54.
Sullivan, T.D.
(1977). Active and passive euthanasia: An impertinent distinction?Human Life Review, 3,
40-46.
55.
Taylor, G.
, & Gaita, R. (1981). Integrity. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society
Supplement, 55,
143-159.
56.
Tierney, W.
, Dexter, P., & Gramelspacher, G. (2001). Effect of discussions about advance directives on patients'
satisfaction with primary care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16,
32-40.
57.
Weisman, A.
(1978). An appropriate death. In R. Fulton, E. Markusen, G. Owen, & J. Scheiber (Eds.), Death and dying: Challenge and change (pp.
193-194). Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
58.
Widera-Wysoczanska, A.
(1999). Everyday awareness of death: A qualitative investigation. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 39,
73-95.
59.
Williams, B.
(1981). Moral luck (pp. 40-53).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
60.
Wood, L.
, & Del Papa, L. (1996). Nurses' attitudes, ethical reasons, and knowledge of the law
concerning advance directives. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 28, 371.
