Religious Understandings of a Good Death in Hospice Palliative Care.

In the 1960s in London, England, Cicely Saunders introduced a new way of treating the terminally ill, which she called “hospice care.” Saunders, a trained nurse, social worker, and medical doctor, held that humans should be able to die with dignity and at peace. This viewpoint originated from her medical experience as well as her religious commitment as a Christian. The religious basis of hospice care permeates Saunders’s whole approach to the terminally ill, and her vision resulted in the founding of St. Christopher’s Hospice in 1967 in London. There, Saunders developed a program of care for the dying based on three key principles: pain control; a family or community environment; and an engagement with the dying person’s most deeply rooted spirituality. Although the hospice movement began in a Christian context, it was clear from the start that there was to be no “forcing of religion,” and openness to all religious traditions was encouraged. While the first two of Saunders’s principles have been well studied, the third, engagement with a person’s most deeply rooted spirituality or religion, has not been. Thus, the focus of this book is on the religious understandings of a “good death” in hospice care. Leading scholars of the major religious traditions will formulate their own understanding of a good death, specifically with regard to the “spiritual pain” that often parallels and accompanies “physical pain” in hospice care. These understandings are formulated in terms accessible to people from different intellectual, social, and religious traditions. To ensure that our answers go beyond the theoretical level, a series of real-life case studies from different cultures, religions, and medical challenges are included.