On Death And Dying By Elizabeth Kubler Ross

In the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, racism and prejudice are clearly evident and talked about throughout the novel. The novel expresses the oppression of the blacks under a white-ruled society through the narrator, Grant. Grant is a well-educated black man who struggles to free himself from the oppression he has felt from the white community. Despite the fact that he is educated and a teacher, he initially lacks the vigor needed to take the first step against black discrimination. He has all this intellect, but does not realize until later on that it is not only intelligence he needs to overcome the oppression, but self-assertion, too. Education does not prove your intellectual worth in society; rather, it is what you do during difficult times that define your intelligence and strong character not just to yourself, but to the world.

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die and when, you can only decide how you are going to live”. (Joan Baez). In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, written by Ernest J. Gaines, Jefferson doesn’t get to choose how and when he’s going to die, but he learns valuable lessons from Grant about how to live the rest of his life. This novel takes place in Bayonne, Louisiana, in the late 1940s. Jefferson is a twenty-one-year-old uneducated black man, who is accused of a robbery and murder that he did not commit. Unfortunately, the conviction led to his death by execution. While he is in jail, Jefferson’s grandmother wants him to die a hero, so she turns to Grant Wiggins, a black teacher at the local plantation school. During his time in

My grandmother wanted to discuss how financial security and wellbeing matters for her family would continue to thrive after she went to heaven. I agreed with Kubler-Ross when she mentioned that this action not only served the interests of the patient (my grandmother), but of the whole family's defensiveness. My grandmother was fairly hostile when she was in the pain before her death. Kubler-Ross mentions that as the family reacts personally to this anger, they respond with increasing anger on their part, only feeding into the patient's hostile behavior (65). Another important quote from the section on anger states, Nobody can put on frosting when you are hurting (85). This is true for many people. It seems that if one is feeling angry and upset, surely enough the wheel of anger will revolve around to those around them. They show examples of the importance of our tolerance to others rational or irrational not only in dealing with terminal patients. Our ability to listen to others will help to express the needs (such as comfort) of the dying patient. Many times, the reason for dying is associated with bargaining for more time. I am certain that through the whole process my grandmother thought, if only I had done this differently, maybe God would give me more time to clean up my act and change my behavior. I feel we can learn a lot from this section in our day-to-day lives. We all ask our individual if only and if we are struck with an illness, we fight for

James Rachels claims that morality is absolute. In his article Mortality is Not Relative, he discusses the fallacies of Cultural Relativism as well as the Cultural Differences Argument. Rachels believes that all cultures have some values in common and that there is way less disagreement between them than it seems. He brings up the example of the Eskimo’s and how they choose to kill the infants that they cannot take care of, “The Eskimo’s values are not all that different from our values. It is only that life forces upon them choices that we do not have to make” (Rachels). Another example of this would be how in some cultures it is wrong to eat cows because they believe that the souls of their ancestors and deceased are reincarnated into the cow. In our culture we would not eat our grandparents either, the only difference is we do not believe that they become cows, thus we would have no problem eating cows. “Now do we want to say that their values are different than ours? No, the difference lies elsewhere. The difference is in our belief systems, not in our values” (Rachels).

Modern medicine has been fighting death and whether that is good or bad remains unknown. In the essay “On The Fear Of Dying,” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross dissects modern medicines effects on living and examines the mental and emotional toll it has taken on people. In the essay she talks about how regardless of modern medicine’s benefits, has allowed us to become more wary of acknowledging death and accepting it. The author explains that despite the advantages of these new advancements, medical advancements have lead to more emotional and mental problems regarding death. While Kübler-Ross takes a rather grim outlook on modern medicine, I agree with her; modern medicine has increased the average lifespan but has not changed the fearful ways we view death, has destroyed how we cope with death and dying, and has made dying an unpleasant experience.

As presented by Kubler-Ross, the process of experiencing and dealing with loss can be described step-by-step in five stages. The first stage is denial, which Kubler-Ross interpreted to be synonymous to "disbelief" to the grieving individual. At this stage, the individual is in a state of shock that understanding and making sense of the reality that a loved one is already gone is yet to be fathomed by the individual. At this point, the individual is

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

All living beings promise one thing when they are born and set in existence; that they will live and then after they have exercised their temporal being they sign off to death. The contract of a human being’s life is that it comes with mortality, so we do as much as we can in

Even though organizations such as hospice which minimize pain are made aware to patients with terminal illnesses, it begs the question why do people still want to partake in physician assisted suicide? The issue of wanting to commit suicide is not so much an issue of physical health but more so an issue of mental and spiritual health. In her paper, Foley refers to a study which says “depressed patients with cancer said they would view positively those physicians who acknowledged their willingness to assist in suicide. In contrast, patients with cancer who were suffering from pain would be suspicious of such physicians”(121). In other words, the majority of a patient 's suffering actually comes from their mental state. As we all know, there

The article on businessballs.com discusses the Kubler-Ross model for death and dying. The main argument that I take of this is that it is only a model, and not solid steps that one will go through when facing death or other challenges. The steps are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Some may go directly to the acceptance stage, however others may stay in the denial stage for an extended period without actively trying to move on. Dying does not only affect those who are personally spending but also those who are surrounded by it, spouses, children, caregivers, friends, and other family members. The stages can describe someone dying or those around them.

Death is something that everyone has to eventually face it one day. The conception of death changes across the life span, as it is mention in the book “Discovering the life span” by Robert Feldman. Defining death is a complex process, which is determining at which point does the life ends. There are different stages of death such as functional death, brain death, infant and childhood deaths, and death in adolescence, death in young adulthood, death in middle adulthood and death in late adulthood. Death education term refers to different educational activities and various experiences related to death, bereavement, grief and affection for people who are being affected by death.

“Death. The only thing inevitable in life”, Colleen Hoover, an American author, simply summarized our greatest fear in words that once read, cannot be forgotten. It’s the journey that counts, it’s how you live that counts and till your last breath bringing pride to the country you were born in and eventually to the rest of the world. What scares me the most is not that we are mortals,but the deeds that we do aren’t. Everything I do in this moment will change something in what is to come. The worst part is that as John Donne once said, “No man is an island” everything I do will affect someone in my life. Therefore a ripple will reach the people I care about and the things I care about. It is this weight that I refer to as responsibility. This

Significant life events (SLE) can be any episode that may be positive or negative, impacting on an individual life, or reflecting as good and bad practice. For example, it may include underage pregnancy, coping with a staffing crisis, complaints or compliments received from workplace, breaches of confidentiality, a sudden unexpected death or hospitalisation. (Patient.co.uk, 2014) example of SLE:

For many people, the process of dying is a prolonged, painful, and emotionally devastating experience. Dying often leaves an individual filled with fear, confusion, and feelings of loneliness and isolation. Fortunately, there are palliative care options that seek to mitigate not only the physical pains and symptoms of death, but also actively work to address the emotional turmoil countless people experience as they begin to descend towards death. On the other hand, far too many Americans still die in intensive-care-units and emergency rooms, where doctors aggressively work to save the lives of all patients, without regarding the actual status or well-being of the person’s life before them. Dying in a hospital room is not peaceful; it is often

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their