Death and Dying (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) - Softcover

Book 73 of 114: MIT Press Essential Knowledge

Nicole Piemonte; Shawn Abreu M.D.

 
9780262542425: Death and Dying (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0262542420 ISBN 13: 9780262542425
Publisher: MIT Press, 2021

Synopsis

An examination of the contemporary medicalization of death and dying that calls us to acknowledge instead death\x27s existential and emotional realities.<\/b> Death is a natural, inevitable, and deeply human process, and yet Western medicine tends to view it as a medical failure. In their zeal to prevent death, physicians and hospitals often set patients and their families on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory toward medical interventions that may actually increase suffering at the end of life. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series examines the medicalization of death and dying and proposes a different approach\-\-one that acknowledges death\x27s existential and emotional realities.
The authors\-\-one an academic who teaches and studies end\-of\-life care, and the other a physician trained in hospice and palliative care\-\-offer an account of Western\-style death and dying that is informed by both research and personal experience. They examine the medical profession\x27s attitude toward death as a biological dysfunction that needs fixing; describe the hospice movement, as well as movements for palliative care and aid in dying, and why they failed to influence mainstream medicine; consider our reluctance to have end\-of\-life conversations; and investigate the commodification of medicine and the business of dying. To help patients die in accordance with their values, they say, those who care for the dying should focus less on delaying death by any means possible and more on being present with the dying on their journey.

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About the Author

Nicole M. Piemonte, PhD, is Assistant Dean for Medical Education at Creighton University School of Medicine in Phoenix. She is the author of <i>Afflicted: How Vulnerability Can Heal Medical Education and Practice</i> (MIT Press). Shawn Abreu, MD, is a board-certified Hospice and Palliative Medicine physician at Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
MIT Press
Publication date
2021
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0262542420
ISBN 13 
9780262542425
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
248