(Newswire.net — October 28, 2016) — As a culture, we share an obsession with death. It’s considered one of the most common fears, and many people have strong feelings about how they would prefer to die – perhaps in their sleep, surrounded by family, with as little pain as possible for all involved.
Unfortunately, we rarely control the circumstances of our own deaths, and many people experience significant suffering towards the end of their lives. It’s with precisely this type of painful death in mind, then, that the Death with Dignity movement has gained traction in the U.S. and abroad. Can we create a supposed “good death” by giving people more control over their own end of life circumstances?
A Good Death
To understand what it might mean to die a good death, it’s worth taking a closer look at how different cultures approach the final moments of life.
Around the world, one of the most prominent features of a good death is spiritual connectivity. Some call it Christ consciousness, Buddha consciousness, or connect it to another religious figure. Many Christians seek a blessing or some variety of last rites – blessing and forgiveness before death.
Many Indian and Tibetan traditions see a kind of grace and triumph in death, and when someone is dying, people chant the Mahamrityunjaya – The Great Victory Over Death. The underlying idea is that death should be easy when the time is right and the individual is simply moving on to the next phase.
The Rise of Death Doulas
More recently in the U.S., people have begun seeking the assistance of death doulas. Doulas are typically associated with helping women give birth, but in this case, the doulas work with dying individuals, their families, and friends to help people discuss and prepare for death.
Among their many skills, death doulas can help create care plans, write advanced directives, and help people make choices about what they would like their environment to be like during their last days and hours. They might talk about who will be there, what music will be playing, or where the individual would like to be. Death doulas, too, are meant to give people a sense of peace in death, and can help those with terminal illness feel as though they have some control over their circumstances.
Choosing Death
Though death with dignity, sometimes also called euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, has been an option in some European countries for decades, it is only legal in five states – Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, and Montana – and much of the time it flies under the radar. However, in 2014, death with dignity made the headlines when a terminally ill 29-year old woman named Brittany Maynard chose to end her life.
Maynard’s death – which she adamantly stated was not suicide, but simply controlling the circumstances of her already rapidly approaching death – raised questions about the ethics of such practices that will not be quickly or easily settled, either here or on a global scale.
The Great Divide
Global divisions over euthanasia run deep, as evidenced by the contrasting cases of the Netherlands and Australia. In the Netherlands, over 600 physicians are certified to assist dying patients who want to choose the circumstances of their death. These doctors are required to complete special training and there are numerous regulations regarding medical clearance and reporting of all euthanasia cases. One prominent doctor in the movement has called the Netherlands a “laboratory” for physician-aided death.
In comparison, Australia, which is similar to the Netherlands in many ways – high GDP nations with a similar average lifespan and highly urban populations, and which is on the whole actually less religious than the Netherlands (where the majority of people are Roman Catholic) – shows much more hesitancy around the topic of euthanasia. Though it was briefly legal in the Northern Territories, the law was overturned and it remains illegal across the country.
With this in mind, it comes as no surprise, then, that when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation recently chose to air the final moments of euthanasia activist Max Bromson’s life, there was much controversy. Bromson took a fatal dose of an illegal drug in order to end his life, and many called the station irresponsible and voyeuristic for choosing to broadcast the act.
Ultimately, a good death may look like many things, but for most, control – even in small things – is an important component. For some, this will mean physical control, while for others it will mean spiritual control, a sense of peace and preparation.
Ultimately, there are many good deaths and as many approaches as there are individuals.