The concept of a good death to me differs depending on the lens through which you choose to view it, whether it is cultural, religious, or individualist etc. and generally the life experiences one has had. Personally, as a Christian, and someone from a culture of strong family values, although it’s not something I’ve given a great amount of thought, a good death to me would be one that was painless, and where I feel I have lived a good life and accomplished all that I could have and so on, surrounded by loved ones. The paper by Walter was very interesting in describing the increasingly individualist society in which we live. If you look at death from this paradigm, what constitutes a good death would be death on your terms, although the extent to which this is truly possible is questionable as very few people ‘know’ exactly when this event will occur. As medical practitioners in this context, being able to conform to the wishes of a dying patient becomes of paramount importance. When you look at different cultures and religions however, who take a much less individualistic approach to dying; the paradigm shifts and things could get tricky for medical practitioners if they try to use an individualist approach on such patients.
