PSYC 3570 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Pain Management, Sedation, Medicalization
8 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Much of the time we primp dying through various linguistic maneuvers: Medicalization serves the purpose of insulating physicians and bureaucrats from the moral realities. The moment when life passes into death has long been charged with passionate meanings. Last words have often been seized upon as emblems of meaning. A positive memory image might help the survivors come to terms more easily with their own mortality. Medical advances help people survive longer with conditions that were once considered life threatening . Alzheimer"s and related dementias more often accompany people in last phase of life; so afflicted individuals might not seem present at death. Often times the person dies alone; family might have visited but don"t happen to be there at the last moment. How and when we die is influenced by societal practices as well as physical disorders: understaffed nursing or medical service have excessive demands.
