PSY313H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Kübler-Ross Model, Thanatology, Assisted Suicide
Document Summary
Peoples attitudes about death are shaped by the time and place in which the people live. Meaning and impact of it are influenced by what people feel and do. Culture can affect how a person feels and behaves towards death. During modern times, death was = normal, expected event- welcomed as a peaceful way to end suffering. Advances in medicine, new treatments, better educated population have brought a mortality revolution in late 19th century. Women less likely to die in childbirth, people reach old age. Led to death becoming invisible and abstract - people were cared for by professionals vs. Family, died in hospitals/nursing homes, people go through life without thinking about death. Today things are changing, hard to deny reality of death- many more deaths are occurring at home, because of hospital costs. But sometimes mechanical devices can artificially sustain hearbeat, even if brain stops working (ex. Rasies the question of when life support should removed- who judges this.