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The “good death”: An integrative literature review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2016

Laura Cottrell  and
Wendy Duggleby
Laura Cottrell*
Affiliation:
PhD Student Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Wendy Duggleby
Affiliation:
PhD Student Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Professor and Director, Innovations in Seniors Care Research Unit, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Laura Cottrell, PhD Student Faculty of Nursing Level 3, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, 11405-87 Avenue, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6 G 1C9, Canada. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Objective:

The “good death” is a dynamic concept and has evolved over time to become a “revivalist” good death: a planned, peaceful, and dignified death, at home, surrounded by family members. As the “good death” continues to evolve, the key questions are: How do cultural perceptions of death and dying change? What are the forces that shape Western attitudes and beliefs around death and dying? And how does the “good death” discourse frame the dying experience in contemporary society? The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the underlying discourse in the literature on the “good death” in Western societies.

Method:

An integrative literature review of data from experimental and nonexperimental sources in PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and SocINDEX of 39 articles from 1992 to 2014.

Results:

Four main themes emerged from reviewing 39 articles on the “good death”: (1) the “good death” as control, (2) the wrong “good death,” (3) the threatened “good death,” and (4) the denial of dying.

Significance of Results:

Evolving in response to prominent social attitudes and values, the contemporary “good death” is a powerful, constraining discourse that limits spontaneity and encourages one way to die. Social, political, and demographic changes now threaten the stability of the “good death”; dying is framed as an increasingly negative or even unnecessary process, thus marginalizing the positive aspects of dying and rendering dying absent, invisible.

Keywords

“Good death,” HospicePalliative careLiterature review
Type
Review Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 14 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 686 - 712
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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