Introduction
Current medical trends have brought a focus on palliative care or the care of terminally sick patients who have no hopes of recovery and cannot be expected to lead a normal life. This paper discusses the concept of death-denying and develops an understanding of how it impacts patients.
What is death-denying
Ashby (2005) has suggested that death-denying is the process where the life of a critically ill patient is prolonged by placing them on life support systems. He has discussed the case of a few patients who could be classified as being in the ‘vegetative state’ where it was medical technology alone that ensured that the patients lived.
Zimmermann (2004) has argued that there is a reluctance and reticence on the part of the healthcare community and the society when it comes to palliative care or care for the dying. The author has argued that society has become a death-denying society where prolonging life becomes a test of the machines and technology that is bent on prolonging death. Death is no more regarded as a natural cause but a technological and clinical event and while instances of death in hospitals and institutions have risen, there has been a considerable decline in death at homes. The author has argued that the death-denying society which includes pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals with specialized training has increased the lifespan of human beings.
Zimmermann has suggested that the death-denying society has created an ‘atmosphere of denial’ where information is withheld from patients and their real condition is not revealed. Society creates a veil of silence and does not reveal such information to patients who want to know the truth about their health. The author has cited the works of some eminent authors and calls this masquerade the ‘pornography of death. The research pointed out that while explicit pornography is freely discussed, prudery is practiced while discussing natural death. The death-denying society, has turned death into a mere medicalization practice and the funeral practices, display of grief, and mourning has become detached and the survivors have become bystanders since there is a taboo on discussing death.
Is Australia a death-denying society
Ashby (2005), Zimmermann (2004) have pointed out that in Australia, the right to live is held so sacrosanct that even qualified and well-meaning doctors cannot provide dignified death to terminally ill patients by activists of the death-denying society. Ashby has stated, “Medicine can make a wonderful contribution to quality of life until death; and it can make it miserable”. It can be concluded that Australia is a strong death-denying society.
How would that impact on healthcare services?
Zimmermann has pointed out that the impact of the death-denying society has five impacts and they are: the taboo on the conversation of death, medicalization of death, segregation of the dying from the society, decline in mourning rituals, and death-denying funeral practices. Of these, the first three have a direct impact on healthcare services. The taboo on the conversation of death means that the patient is kept unaware of the real condition and the information is not revealed even though the patient wants to know. This places the healthcare professionals under constant pressure since they have to take extra caution to hide the condition from the patient and massive resources are used to artificially support the dying patient. The author has pointed out that with increased use of sophisticated life support systems, the ‘naturalness of death’ is lost and the patient is denied the chance to complete any last-minute arrangements. Zimmermann has deplored the ‘death dance’ around terminally ill patients who have to undergo terrible pain and are lead to believe that there is some chance that they may recover. This medicalization of death is one of the worst manifestations of the death-denying society that subjugates death and denies the patient to die with dignity.
Conclusion
We live in a death-denying society where death is not discussed openly and all medical aid is taken to prolong the life of even terminally ill patients. The paper has researched the effect that the death-denying society has on the healthcare industry and concludes that patients should have the right to die with dignity and that expensive medical care and technology should be used to prolong life and not to extend death.
References
- Ashby Michael A, Kellehear Allan, Stoffell Brian F (2005), ‘Resolving conflict in end-of-life care’ MJA, Volume 183, Number 5, pp: 230-231
- Zimmermann Camilla, Rodin Gary (2004), ‘The denial of death thesis: sociological critique and implications for palliative care’, Journal of Palliative Medicine, Volume 18, pp: 121-128