When I die I hope my mourners will hear and enjoy this performance. Enjoy a taster of this unique Irish Trad Show – the Wonders of the Wake – which celebrates the ancient rite of Irish Wake. Discover how, through the Irish Wake, the people of Ireland both mourn their dead in heart-rendering Gaelic laments but also cherish the … Continue reading THE WONDERS OF THE WAKE
by Rebecca Gagne-Henderson PhD ACHPN APRN This blog is written for both clinicians and interested human beings. It describes what happens physiologically if we are allowed to die naturally. A caveat is that for the healthy living individual “it ain’t pretty”, but for the dying individual, it is an incredibly beautiful and mysterious mechanism. Again, to the … Continue reading Starvation, Dehydration & the Physiology of Death
By Kevin Toolis You never forget your first corpse, do you? Cold. Silent. Lying there indifferent to the world and all its myriad responsibilities. Unless, of course, you never get to meet one as is increasingly common in the States where the dead have been banished from our sight. Instinctively in the United States we … Continue reading How the Irish Teach Us to Die
I have been on vacation attending my newest granddaughter’s birth these past two weeks. I am taking a shortcut this week by submitting a previously published piece I wrote several years ago on Pallimed. It was well received and published in Medscape. By writing this blog, I did not garner any favor from my oncologist … Continue reading Palliative Chemotherapy: An Oxymoron
by Rebecca Gagne-Henderson PhD, APRN, ACHPN We find ourselves in an era of frequent and normalized overtreatment of the very old and very ill. This overtreatment contributes to frailty and debility, which leads to the institutionalization of those unfortunates to lay and wait for death to come. Overtreatment includes interventions that have little to no … Continue reading Overtreatment, the River Styx and End-of-Life Conversations
by Rebecca Gagne-Henderson PhD, APRN, ACHPN This Sunday is Easter. There is no better time to tell this story. It is a story of a patient our team cared for when I was director of a hospice. Easter is an appropriate time as this is the story of a young woman’s resurrection experience. This experience … Continue reading A Story of Grace, Redemption and Remoralization
Originally posted March 15, 2022 by Rebecca Gagne-Henderson PhD, APRN, ACHPN This will be the first in a series of blogs regarding assisted dying. It is a much more complicated issue than can be discussed in 280 characters tweets. The issue goes far beyond the principle of autonomy and involves more than the individual purporting … Continue reading Ethics of Assisted Death: Part I
by Rebecca Gagne-Henderson PhD APRN ACHPN Those who argue for assisted death do so without a thorough examination of all the ethical implications associated with this practice, and the ramifications it will have for the individual, the clinician, and society. The most frequently cited ethical principle in the argument for assisted death is Autonomy. According … Continue reading Ethics of Assisted Death: Part II
