Allowing Love Ones to Die a Good Death

535 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A case study on stages of grief

Kaufman’s chapter on “Transforming Time” presented many truths most of do not want to think about. Even though we all know the inevitably of death; most of us cling to life. This is not an unusual phenomenon, but what is compelling is the perception of death. Allowing your loved one to die a “good” death verses a “bad” one. The author presented two illustrations of families faced with a loved one who is dying. One such illustration was Mrs. Brown and her husband. Mrs. Brown who had “been married fifty-six years” noted her husband was “the only thing I have.” (page 111) In making this statement she acknowledged that she wanted to hold on to him for as long as she could. The perplexing element arises, when asked by the medical team, what life sustaining measures to take; her response was “I’ll leave it to God’s will.” Unfortunately, for a medical team this is not a definitive response. The uncertainty of what to do still lingers.

This leads me to ask a very simple, yet a very profound question: When faced with a decision such as this, do we as Christians truly leave the d...

Show More
Related

  • Death Constant Beyond Love

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is inevitable that we will all die it is a fact that everyone must come to terms with. There comes a time in everyone’s life that they must face death; a friend’s tragic accident, a family member’s passing or their own battles with diseases. When faced with the idea of death people will act in different ways some may find it therapeutic to apologize for the negative they have done, some may want to spend time with loved ones to ease the future pain, and others may decide that their life was not what they believed. The story Death Constant Beyond Love tells us about a man named Senator Sanchez who is living a happy life with his wife and five kids. That is until he is told by doctors that he only has a short time to live. Death is unknown much like love, we do not know or understand when love will find us, and it is the same with death. In Death Constant Beyond Love is not your typical love or death story. After told about his pending doom Senator Sanchez wants to keep his life as constant as normal, until his desires for a young woman change his plans, and then he dies.

    Read More

  • Review of Bob Deits's Life After Loss

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sadly, life is a terminal illness, and dying is a natural part of life. Deits pulls no punches as he introduces the topic of grief with the reminder that life’s not fair. This is a concept that most of us come to understand early in life, but when we’re confronted by great loss directly, this lesson is easily forgotten. Deits compassionately acknowledges that grief hurts and that to deny the pain is to postpone the inevitable. He continues that loss and grief can be big or small and that the period of mourning afterward can be an unknowable factor early on. This early assessment of grief reminded me of Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of change, and how the process of change generally follows a specific path.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Compassion In A Lesson Before Dying

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, Grant Wiggins is asked to turn Jefferson, a young man on death row, into an honorable man before his execution. Grant faces many difficulties when Jefferson is unresponsive and refuses to comply with Grant and Aunt Emma’s request. Throughout the story, Grant struggles to find motivation to keep working with Jefferson as he faces the difficulty of racism and prejudice. The author of the novel, Ernest J. Gaines, uses characterization to prove the theme that a lack of compassion in individuals can prevent people from uniting to form a better society, because they do not try to understand one another. In the beginning of the novel, Miss Emma and Tante Lou are threatening Grant into going to visit Mr.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Symbolic Interactionism In Tuesdays With Morrie

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tuesdays with Morrie is a book about and old college sociology professor who gives us insight not only on death, but also on other topics important in our lives like fear, marriage, and forgiveness while in his last days being on Earth. Using symbolic interactionism I will analyze one of Morrie’s experiences; while also explaining why I chose such an experience and why I felt it was all connected. Seven key concepts will be demonstrated as well to make sure you can understand how powerful Morrie’s messages truly are. The one big message I took from Morrie was to learn how to live and not let anything hold you back

    Read More

  • A Lesson Before Dying

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, Grant and Jefferson are black men in the era of a racist society; but they have struggles with a greater dilemma, obligation and commitment. They have obligations to their families and to the town they are part of. They lived in a town were everybody knew everybody else and took care of each other. "Living and teaching on a plantation, you got to know the occupants of every house, and you knew who was home and who was not.... I could look at the smoke rising from each chimney or I could look at the rusted tin roof of each house, and I could tell the lives that went on in each one of them." [pp. 37-38] Just by Grant’s words you can tell that that is a community that is very devoted to each other.

    Read More

  • Being Mortal: A Review and Reflection

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    The flow and organization of the topics are structured chronologically and easy for readers to have a clear depiction of the progression of the book. He explains and elaborates his ideas and assumptions on struggles with morality, through real voices of patients and his own personal encounter. The first few topics were lighthearted, more on procedural terms such as the demographics of care in the United States and India and the evolution of care. This heightens to themes that are close to one’s heart as he uncovers the relationship amongst medicine, patient, and the family. It also deliberates on the concerns after medicine becomes impotent and society is ill-equipped for the aging population, which highlight the decisions and conversations one should or might have pertaining to death. He makes

    Read More

  • Improving End-of-Life Care in The United States

    2060 Words  | 5 Pages

    Americans at the end of their lives no longer have this sense of continuity and stability. Rituals today are as likely to include tubes and noisy machines, artificial ventilators and unpleasant drug regimens bringing as many unpleasant side effects as health benefits. Many times the dying languishes in a hospital bed, surrounded not by the comforts of home and family but rather by sterility and bright lights, strangers and hushed voices. Death is no longer a mysterious part of a cherished tradition but a terrifying ordeal to be postponed as long as possible, an enemy that must be fought off at all costs.

    Read More

  • Difference And Diversity For A Good Death

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout this essay I will discuss and define what is a ‘good death’ and who it is good for, using case studies as evidence. Defining the difference on difference and diversity and why it is important to outline the relation to difference and diversity for a ‘good death’.

    Read More

  • Human Dignity in A Lesson Before Dying

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Grant and Jefferson are on a journey. Though they have vastly different educational backgrounds, their commonality of being black men who have lost hope brings them together in the search for the meaning of their lives. In the 1940’s small Cajun town of Bayonne, Louisiana, blacks may have legally been emancipated, but they were still enslaved by the antebellum myth of the place of black people in society. Customs established during the years of slavery negated the laws meant to give black people equal rights and the chains of tradition prevailed leaving both Grant and Jefferson trapped in mental slavery in their communities.

    Read More

  • Suicide Persuasive Speech

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    Envision that you're laying in a hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines knowing that your life is ending. Nurses and doctors come in often to check in on you, yet they know nothing they will do can keep you alive. You’re tired and feeling the effects of the many drugs you’ve been put on to control the pain, breathing is hard and you don’t enjoy food like you used to.Doctors have told you there is no chance of survival and you will die very soon. The only thing that matters now is when you will die. You have said goodbye to your family and friends and have come to terms with the harsh reality. If you had the chance to choose how your life would end you could do it now. Yet you can’t. This is because in the place you live, physician assisted

    Read More

  • Analysis Of When Breath Becomes Air By Paul Kalanisia

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concept between life and death cannot simply exist without one another, where the topic is widely discussed throughout “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi. This memoir explores Paul’s definition of death as he passes through the distinct “stages” of his life. As Paul progresses through each stage, he views death differently as he transformed from a student to a neurosurgeon, neurosurgeon to a patient, and eventually becoming a father, where he needed to take full responsibility as an adult.

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Grief

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of What Really Matters At The End Of Life

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    In BJ Millers TedTalk, “What Really Matters at the End of Life?” BJ Miller discusses on how we think on death and honor life. He speaks to the audience about how for the most people the scariest thing about death is not death itself, it is actually dying or suffering. The targeted audience is everyone in the world, because eventually everyone is going to die and everyone thinks about death. BJ 3 has big points in the article saying, Distinction between necessary and unnecessary suffering. Also by having a little ritual that helps with this shift in perspective. Another point is to lift and set our sights on well-being. We need to lift our sights, to set our sights on well-being, so that life and health and healthcare can become about making life more wonderful, rather than just less horrible.

    Read More

  • Death And Dying In Roman Catholicism

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jesus Christ’s life and mission, which is now present worldwide, is the origin of the Roman Catholicism. Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who became man, died and rose from the dead to redeem humanity from sin (Catholic Truth Society, 3). He passed his mission of salvation to the Catholic Church through his apostles and then their successors (Catholic Truth Society, 4).

    Read More

  • coping with death

    475 Words  | 1 Pages

    People cope with the loss of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death. The way a person grieves depends on the personality of that person and the relationship with the person who has died. How a person copes with grief is affected by the person's cultural and religious background, coping skills, mental history, support systems, and the person's social and financial status.

    Read More

More about Allowing Love Ones to Die a Good Death

Open Document