1st Edition

On Death without Dignity The Human Impact of Technological Dying

By David Moller Copyright 1990
    116 Pages
    by Routledge

    116 Pages
    by Routledge

    Candidly written, ""On Death Without Dignity: The Human Impact of Technological Dying"", attempts to re-humanize the inevitable biological occurrence called dying. It is Moller's view that through the advancement of medicalized technology, has come the demise of the contemporary dying process. The oncological death is reflected as failure in the part of modern medicine, the physician, and the hospital; yet the patient experiences alienation, stigma, helplessness, and normlessness. Yet as a culture the current societal approach to the dying-silent avoidance-only adds to this alienation. Society has failed to provide the necessary rules for this universal, social, and biological event.

    Preface and Acknowledgments

    Introductory Précis: Jack Elinson, Ph.D.

    Introduction

    Technology, Meaning, and Death
    Meaning of death or death of meaning

    Death and Denial in Modern America

    Technological Medicine, The Technocratic Physician and Human Dying

    Individualism, Fellowship, and Dying
    The non-communal environment
     Dying and loss of fellowship

    Modern Dying and Social Organization of the Hospital
    The hospital as total institution
     Patient alienation within the hospital

    The Stigma of Dying
    Identity problems: Beyond the looking-glass
     The stigma of dying: Scenarios of personal terror
     Sexuality and dying: Fertile ground for stigma
     As the new self emerges

    Approaching Omega: The Roller Coaster of Dying
    The course of dying and societal forces

    A Concluding Statement on Technology and the Social Isolation of Dying

    A Methodological Note

    Index 

     

    Biography

    David Moller