Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: End of Life

  • Plato’s and Bacon’s views on the role of medical care for chronic diseases

    (Abstracted from the essay on Francis Bacon by Lord Macaulay) “To Plato, the science of medicine appeared to be of very disputable advantages. He did not indeed object to quick cures for acute disorders, or for injuries produced by accidents. But the art which resists the slow sap of a chronic disease had no share…

  • Fear of being buried alive

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   A diagram of a safety coffin with a signal flag. Crop of Wellcome Collection image. CC BY 4.0.  “Cremation eliminates all danger of being buried alive.” – “Short reasons for cremation,” an Australian pamphlet, c. 1900   It has been said that one of our most common fears is being…

  • The sophia and phronesis of modern medicine

    Meaghan O’Connor Durham, North Carolina, United States   The Doctor. Luke Fildes, 1891. Tate Gallery, London. Via Wikimedia.  My first clinical experience was working as a hospice aide my sophomore year of college. During that experience I watched my first patient suffer—physically and spiritually—and eventually die. Not bound by the time constraints of more formal…

  • Reclamation

    Natalie Perlov Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States   “Tell them you love them.” Photo by Neil Moralee on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Like many people, my first experience with death was losing a grandparent. I remember my parents organizing my late grandfather’s affairs, noting our religious practice of having as few people as possible touch the…

  • A time to live and a time to die

    Amera Hassan Minneapolis, Minnesota   Photo by Gaspar Zaldo on Pexels. “Well to be honest, doc, I don’t quite care whether I do live or die.” He said it so nonchalantly and he was smiling too, a crow-footed wrinkle on either side of his eyes. When this patient was first admitted to the floor, he…

  • Medicalization of death and dying: Room for growth in end-of-life care

    Rose Parisi Albany, New York, United States   Artwork by Kristen Merola. In recent years, the way in which Americans cope with death and dying has evolved considerably and become institutionalized and over-medicalized. Whereas over time people have died in their homes, untethered to wires and machinery, modern medicine has turned people into patients and…

  • Saying goodbye

    Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece   “A walk into life’s sunset.” Photo by author. Her head is bald, her face pale. Only a couple of weeks have passed since her latest cycle of chemotherapy, which imposed its ravages but offered no benefit. The disease is marching relentlessly ahead, the survival horizon drawing closer each day. She…

  • Please don’t die in the hospital

    Alexandra DeFelice Falls Church, Virginia, United States   “Dead Flowers” by John Brighenti on Flickr. CC BY 2.0.   I don’t like the way people die in the hospital. I don’t like the color schemes, the paleness that seeps into every empty wall, every window shade, every floor tile; every cafeteria counter, every elevator sign,…

  • Allowing my death—a delusory end-of-life decision

    Wolfgang Lederer Innsbruck, Austria   Photo by Chen Mizrach on Unsplash.  Together with the gift of life, I have received its finiteness, its perishability. As death is inescapable, when might I allow my life to end? Certainly, my life expectancy has to be longer than average, and I demand good physical and mental health right…

  • Dream on

    Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States   Footsteps in the forest. Photo by Nicholas D. on Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0. Chart This is a 32-year-old female with widely metastatic breast cancer admitted to the hospital for control of shortness of breath and pain. ____ Melissa sits slumped, mouth open, snoring. I pull a chair…