Facing Death: Where Culture, Religion, and Medicine Meet / Edition 1

by Howard Spiro, Lee Palmer Wandel, Mary G. McCrea Curnen

Overview

We have learned a great deal in recent years about keeping death at bay through medical technology. We are less well informed, however, about how to face death and how to understand or articulate the emotional and spiritual needs of the dying. This profound and eloquent book brings together medical experts and distinguished authorities in the humanities to reflect on medical, cultural, and religious responses to death. The book helps both medical personnel and patients to view death less as an adversary and more as a defining part of life.

In the first half of the book, physicians and the founder of Connecticut Hospice discuss the current clinical setting for dying, with attempts to find the balance between alleviating suffering and providing life support, the problem of finding a peaceful death, and the differences the AIDS epidemic has made in our attitudes toward dying. In the second half of the book, theologians, historians of religion, anthropologists, literary scholars, and pastors describe Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese perceptions of death and rituals of mourning. An epilogue considers the resonances between medicine and the humanities, as well as the essential differences in their approaches to death.


Prepared under the auspices of The Program for Humanities in Medicine, Yale University School of Med

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300076677
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/11/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Spiro, Howard M., MD (Yale Univ); Curnen, Mary G. McCrea, MD, PhD (Yale Univ); Wandel, Lee Palmer (Yale Univ)

The contributors represent the specialties of hematology/oncology, pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, biomedical ethics, and history. Most are from Yale, with others from UC Berkeley, George Washington Univ, and Free Univ of Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

4 Stars! from Doody

The timeless topic of death is the focal point for this edited volume of essays. The first half considers clinical issues surrounding death and the second half presents cultural and religious responses. The purpose is to talk out loud about death and the multiple issues that surround this reality. It captures the fears, feelings, frustrations, and faith traditions that consider death. The book is intended for any thoughtful person who is interested in considering this topic from several vantage points. It has wide audience appeal. Naturally, it would be of great interest to healthcare professionals, but it could be used as a text in a university curriculum. This 207-page volume has 22 chapters equally divided into two sections. Part one covers the clinical aspects of the medical battle of facing death; part two presents the cultural and religious responses: framing death. Notes and useful references are found at the end of each chapter. Several black-and-white photos and medieval works of art tastefully add to the readability of this volume. The book presents the medical dilemmas facing healthcare professionals in light of the limits of past medical education. It describes how healthcare professionals can consider death in a broader context than just clinically. The cultural and religious dimensions of the book broaden the reader's understanding of other faith traditions, which are both diverse and remarkably similar. It makes a valuable contribution to the growing body of work on death. It is well written, thought provoking, and challenging.

Thomas E. Tucker

"Infused with a deeply humanitarian spirit and crammed with essential facts and incisive observation." -- Washington Post Book World

Juliet Wittman

Reviewer: Thomas E. Tucker, LCSW, MDiv, PhL (Loyola University Medical Center)
Description: The timeless topic of death is the focal point for this edited volume of essays. The first half considers clinical issues surrounding death and the second half presents cultural and religious responses.
Purpose: The purpose is to talk out loud about death and the multiple issues that surround this reality. It captures the fears, feelings, frustrations, and faith traditions that consider death.
Audience: The book is intended for any thoughtful person who is interested in considering this topic from several vantage points. It has wide audience appeal. Naturally, it would be of great interest to healthcare professionals, but it could be used as a text in a university curriculum.
Features: This 207-page volume has 22 chapters equally divided into two sections. Part one covers the clinical aspects of the medical battle of facing death; part two presents the cultural and religious responses: framing death. Notes and useful references are found at the end of each chapter. Several black-and-white photos and medieval works of art tastefully add to the readability of this volume.
Assessment: The book presents the medical dilemmas facing healthcare professionals in light of the limits of past medical education. It describes how healthcare professionals can consider death in a broader context than just clinically. The cultural and religious dimensions of the book broaden the reader's understanding of other faith traditions, which are both diverse and remarkably similar. It makes a valuable contribution to the growing body of work on death. It is well written, thought provoking, and challenging.

Doody's Review Service