The Care of the Dying—Whose Job is it?

Abstract

Death and dying have always had deep emotional significance. But there is clearly an increasing scientific and objective interest in the process of terminal illness, dying and death, of special significance to physicians and perhaps too long avoided by them. This new interest, no doubt, is in part a reaction to medical technology's compelling contributions to medicine's life-promotion function, but perhaps also in part a profound humanitarian concern for the paradoxical life-threatening consequences of civilization's (including medicine) “progress.” Death and its vicissitudes are no longer solely the province of poets, philosophy and religion. All well-educated physicians must learn to regard death, as they do birth, as part of life. Psychiatry and medical psychology have much to contribute in this pedagogical task. The author describes one approach to a more “therapeutic” understanding and management of the dying patient and the emotional significance of the process of dying.