Death And Dying 11

Death and Dying

 

Answer three of the following questions, drawing upon your choice of appropriate concepts and ideas from the book and lectures.

 

Your answers will be graded on the basis of creativity, persuasiveness, structure of the answer, paragraph structure, clarity of writing, and, of course, content. Remember, write like a boss!

 

1. What do you regard as a good death and why would you regard it as such? How is a good death defined and distinguished from death in general? What factors, in your opinion, contributed to our increasing acceptance of the notion of a good death? How does Hospice contribute to the definition of a good death? What do you see as the key benefitsof Hospice and how to these benefits help with the transition from being alive to passing peacefully into that good night?

 

2. How does Maggie’s death in Million Dollar Baby compare/contrast with the definition of a good death? What kind of death do you regard it, and why? Do you agree with Maggie’s decision and why/why not? Provide a detailed answer to the question of why Frankie agreed to kill Maggie despite his deep religious beliefs (and against the advice of his priest?)?

 

3. At the end of Chapter 11 in Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking) Joan wrote the following: Why do you always have to be right; Why do you always have to have to last word; For once in your life just let it go. In your assessment of Didion’s account of her experiences with the death and illness of her loved ones, to what, in particular, is Didion referring in regard to these questions and statement?

 

4. In regard to the video Being Mortal and class concepts, what factors have contributed to a change in the medical paradigm of preserving life as long as possible? Why were such changes difficult to make, given the socialization of medical students in the last Century? How and why have we accepted the notion that death is not the “enemy” on which we should “wage war” or against which we should rage?

 

5. Drawing on your own perspective and your choice of readings and lecture concepts, discuss you (and others that you know) manage the basic fact that we and our loved onesare mortal. How can knowledge of our (and, importantly, our loved ones’) mortality make us vulnerable and anxious? How does the study of death (even the surface study of death) help us deal with the vulnerability and anxiety associated with our (and our loved ones) deaths?