Simon Woods, Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS), Newcastle University

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Abstract of Keynote presentation

The Good Death Revisited

In this paper I take a conceptual approach to exploring the good death with the object of stimulating thoughtful reflection, and perhaps even critical rejection of some intuitions of the good death. The post-modern turn has made it impossible to consistently advocate a single archetype of the “good death” yet despite this the idea of a peaceful-slipping-away kind of death still has a hold.

Palliative care has emerged from much older traditions of hospice care and has changed in its emphasis from terminal care to a medical specialty managing chronic disease. This change in emphasis goes hand in hand with a greater willingness to intervene with clinical strategies aimed at managing the quality of life through progressive disease. However palliative care appears steadfast in its opposition to using those same means of intervention to control the quality and nature of dying and refuses to be directed in those interventions by the autonomous wishes of the dying person. My argument for a contemporary ars moriendi (the art of dying) will look to ways in which the philosophy of palliative care can be reconciled with the wishes of the dying to have control over the nature and timing of their death.

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Arranged by the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, in collaboration with:

Barncancerfonden (the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation)

Läkartidningen (the Journal of the Swedish Medical Association)

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation)

Vårdal Foundation for Health Care and Allergy Research

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