Sir William Osler: Humanistic Thanatologist

Abstract

Sir William Osler (1849–1919) is the best known and most beloved physician of our time. His career spanned three nations and two continents and he exerted a truly global influence. Osler's interest in thanatology resulted in a pioneering investigation (A Study of Death) dealing with the physical and psychological elements of dying. He showed that in general there was little mental anguish or physical pain associated with death and he took issue with those, like Maeterlinck, who spoke to the contrary. Osler was a great humanist, who together with his intuitive grasp of thanatology, sought to compassionately ameliorate fear and suffering among terminally-ill patients. As a “humanistic thanatologist” he dealt with issues of death, euthanasia, suicide, and bereavement, and had advanced ideas unusual for a physician of his era. In a reference to Anthony Trollope's novel. The Fixed Period, he jokingly suggested chloroform at age sixty and precipitated a storm of protest. The effect of death and grieving in Osler's own life is analyzed, with particular reference to the loss of his only son, Revere, killed in the carnage of the first World War. His approach to his own final illness and death is examined in the light of the principles that he espoused.