The Good Death: Reaching an Inductive Understanding

Abstract

The study examines descriptions by twenty-six elderly Israelis of a good death. The transcripts of personal interviews were analyzed using phenomenological methods to determine general and essential essences of the good death phenomenon. The good death was perceived as a multidimensional phenomenon based on eighteen general essences that were condensed into five essential essences that included the physiological, personal, interpersonal, social and cultural domains of life. The good death description further involved a critical component toward the ways in which death and dying are currently occurring in Israel. The research results call for Israeli policy-makers to more forcefully acknowledge and accommodate the different secular perspectives of the good death into law and to allow individuals more freedom and control over the dying processes and rituals following one's death.

Moving Toward Peace: An Analysis of the Concept of a Good Death

“…Numerous authors have emphasized these facts. 3,4,6,7,32,34,36,40,48 Pierson et al 34 even noted that there was both variability in the attributes of a good death and how those attributes were important. They found some participants who felt that death while sleeping was preferable, while others wished to be alert and aware at the time of death.…”

“…The elements comprising the attribute of being in control were (1) choices/ wishes being honored including communication of wishes, [2][3][4][5]7,30,33,34,36,39,40,42,46,47,[56][57][58] (2) clear decision making, 3,5,6,34,35,40 (3) option for suicide/euthanasia, 3,7,34,40 and (4) control over the death event including control of location, timing, and presence or absence of others. [2][3][4][5][31][32][33][34]36,37,39,40,42,45,46,[55][56][57] Being in control was clearly the most important and most common attribute. There were more than 100 references to issues of control in the 39 articles in the final analysis.…”

“…Bosek et al 5 Cohen et al 30 Hopkinson and Hallett 3 Kristjanson et al 31 Leichtentritt and Rettig 32 Low and Payne 33 Pierson et al 34 Schwartz et al 4 Steinhauser et al 35 Tong et al 37 Curtis 43 El-Nimr et al 44 Grogono 45 Jones and Willis 47 Kittel 46 Smith 42 Essay or editorial Ayers et al 48 Erlen 56 Feinmann 57 Gazelle 59 Hart et al 54 McNeil 58 Neuberger 61 Winslow and Jacobson 55…”

“…In discussing a good death, one issue is whether death is considered a process or an event. Some authors 2,[5][6][7][8]32,34,35,40,48,49,54 take the approach that death is a process, and the quality of dying may change over time during this process. Others 30,31,33,36,39,46,55 view death as an event.…”

Dementia. A personal legacy beyond words

“…It would be impossible to prove otherwise, and dismissive to state that an individual with dementia no longer has a life, or is no longer an individual. Engaging with the final psychological and spiritual stages of a dying person may perplex clinicians, whose job-it is argued-is also to have placed all the key requirements at the individual's disposal for a ''good death,'' or better a ''good end of life'' (Froggatt, 2002;Leichtentritt & Rettig, 2000;Teno & Field, 1999), and to hold the person's ultimate meaning.…”