END OF LIFE CARE AND SPIRITUALITY

             In the last century the average life span in the United States has increased by more then 30 years. One hundred years ago the average American died at the age of forty-six, at home surrounded by family and friends1. Death was seen as an inevitable part of the journey through life. People used spirituality to come to grips with their suffering. (Spirituality is that which gives meaning to one's life, it can be religious in nature, but it can also be found in art, family or friendship. Dying provides an opportunity to find this meaning to life, because it gives an individual the occasion to deal with the deeper questions of existence. This is how people approached death through most of human history.2)
             In the twentieth century the advances in medical technology have dramatically improved quality and length of life. This progress has also dramatically changed the way people die. Death has become institutionalized; today 90% of Americans die in a hospital, a sharp contrast to one hundred years ago, when 95% of Americans died at home1. Removal of death from the home has turned it into a foreign and frightening process, which is difficult to deal with and understand. It is much easier to isolate the dying to a hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).
             This institutionalization of death has created the modern-day medical nightmare-- a death alone, in pain, without dignity, tethered to expensive machines. Friends and relatives do not visit the dying, they avoid them in naive hope that putting death behind a sterile curtain will make it vanish. Death in the ICU can be devoid of spirituality; rather, it is agonizing, and humiliating.
             The broad spectrum of problems created by the institutionalized of death was discussed in the PBS documentary: Before I Die: Medical Care and Personal Choices3. In the program people were allowed to talk openly about the experiences and emotions they encountered while their loved ones w...

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END OF LIFE CARE AND SPIRITUALITY. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 13:17, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/311.html