What Is Death and How Do We Die Well? One-Pager

Undergraduate Curriculum

The Question

• Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus give different accounts of death: separation of soul and body, the loss of living unity, or the end of conscious existence.
• Dying also has personal and relational significance. Asking how to die well requires more than identifying the moment when bodily functions cease.

Significance

• Medical training should prepare physicians for conversations with dying patients and families as well as the technical aspects of care.
• A physician’s own understanding and fears of death shape encounters with dying patients. Whitman brings truthful speech together with love and faithful presence.

Implications

• Reflect on mortality before a crisis. Literature can help us notice concerns that clinical descriptions alone may leave out.
• Speak honestly and listen carefully. Ask about the patient’s beliefs, relationships and wishes when considering care near the end of life.

Reading Excerpt

*Walt Whitman, To One Shortly to Die *

From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you,
You are to die–let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you–There is no escape for you.

Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it,
I do not argue, I bend my head close and half envelop it,
I sit quietly by, I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself spiritual bodily, that is eternal, you yourself will surely escape,
The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.
The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions,
Strong thoughts fill you and confidence, you smile,
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
You do not see the medicines, you do not mind the weeping friends, I am with you,
I exclude others from you, there is nothing to be commiserated,
I do not commiserate, I congratulate you.

Discussion Questions

1. The speaker begins, “You are to die… I cannot prevaricate.” Why might truthful speech about death be an act of love rather than cruelty?
2. The speaker says “I congratulate you” rather than “I commiserate.” What vision of a good death results in a congratulatory response? Is that vision available to everyone, or does it depend on circumstance, belief, or privilege?

Sources: LearnWorlds outline; reading and selected discussion questions.