We have lost the ability to deal with death. Most of the dying spend their last
days in general hospitals and nursing homes, in the care of strangers. They may
not even know they are dying, victims of the kindly lie that there is still
hope. They are often robbed of their dignity after a long series of excessive
and hopeless medical interventions.
This is the starting point of Seamus O'Mahony's book on the western way of
death. Dying has never been more exposed, with public figures writing memoirs of
their illness, but in private we have done our best to banish all thought of
death.
Dying