The Art of DyingMt Hawthorn Community Church
19 June 2011
Dr Doug Bridge, Palliative Care Physician, Royal Perth Hospital
Bangladesh 1979
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is one of a series of portraits that Picasso painted of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter from 1932. The vibrant blue and lilac canvas is more than five feet tall.
On May 4, 2010, the painting was sold for US$106.5 million, a record for an art work sold at auction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude,_Green_Leaves_and_Bust
work
health
family spirituality
Dying person’s world
= human relationships
= transcendent relationships
Psalm 23: God is closer in times of trouble
PS 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in
green pastures, he leads me beside quiet
waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of
righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Darwin 2008
Choose your death: sudden or predictable ?
If you could choose the way you will die, would you rather die:
Suddenly, without warning,
or slowly and predictably?
Healing - Prof Balfour Mount
Healing is a relational process involving movement towards an experience of integrity and wholeness, which may be facilitated by a caregiver’s interventions but is dependent on an innate potential within the patient. It is not dependent on the presence of, or the capacity for, physical well being. Indeed, it is possible to die healed.
Palliative Medicine 2003; 17: 657-658
Palliative Care
• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• neither hastens nor postpones death;• provides relief from pain and other distressing
symptoms;• integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects
of patient care;• offers a support system to help patients live as
actively as possible until death;• offer a support system to help the family cope
during the patient’s illness and during their own bereavement.
(WHO 1990)
Rev Dr Michael WrightUK chaplain, researcher, educator
“Hospices arose in a Christian context. But non-religious patients demonstrate similar needs to their religious counterparts: for love, for meaning, for forgiveness and for transcendence”
Spirituality: a developing concept within Palliative CareProgress in Palliative Care 2001; 9: 143-148
A model of spirituality in terminally ill patients (Chantal Chao)
Communion with a higher beingfaithfulness, hope gratitude
Communion with selfSelf-identity, wholeness, inner peace
Communion with othersLove, reconciliation
Communion with nature Inspiration from the beauty of nature, creativity
I
An amazing promise
LK 23:42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. "
43 Jesus answered
him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
A new creation with no deathREV 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."