Dying

While it has been stated that the dominant culture of
North America is death-denying and death-phobic, this
statement is rarely elaborated. The documented
experiences and perspectives of dying and death in
three selected films offer the opportunity to observe
the discourses of dying and death. A dialogue between
two Canadian documentary films, Dying at Grace and
Kids Care, and the narrative foreign Dutch film
Antonia s Line, provide the occasion for illustration
and examination of the discourse of dying and death
in Canada and our general fearful countenance toward
death. Authored from the perspective of clinical
experience in community palliative care and a view of
medicine as culture, the influence of the
contemporary character of North America upon the
experience of and response to dying and death are
considered. This exploration affirms the existence of
a fear of dying and death, on individual and
collective levels, advocating for accommodation of
this fear in the orientation of professional
caregivers of those who are dying and their families.
Though a terminal diagnosis may be one''s last chance
to learn about dying and death, fear need not be the
dominant response to death.

Autorentext
Jennifer C. Bennett Pond, MA: Studied Interdisciplinary Humanities at Laurentian University, Canada. Hospice Program Coordinator, Ontario.

Klappentext
While it has been stated that the dominant culture of North America is death-denying and death-phobic, this statement is rarely elaborated. The documented experiences and perspectives of dying and death in three selected films offer the opportunity to observe the discourses of dying and death. A dialogue between two Canadian documentary films, Dying at Grace and Kids Care, and the narrative foreign Dutch film Antonia's Line, provide the occasion for illustration and examination of the discourse of dying and death in Canada and our general fearful countenance toward death. Authored from the perspective of clinical experience in community palliative care and a view of medicine as culture, the influence of the contemporary character of North America upon the experience of and response to dying and death are considered. This exploration affirms the existence of a fear of dying and death, on individual and collective levels, advocating for accommodation of this fear in the orientation of professional caregivers of those who are dying and their families. Though a terminal diagnosis may be one's last chance to learn about dying and death, fear need not be the dominant response to death.