Denial and Dignity

“This is not your mum anymore.” Terry, one of the people Tim Falconer interviewed, talked of how even as his mother was described as being in a vegetative state, he always treated her as if she was there. Janet, whose daughter Stephanie was comatose after the removal of a brain tumour, spoke of not wanting to discontinue treatment for her daughter. While Janet did not expect Stephanie to wake up, she wanted to retain hope and respect for her life.

In the rescue culture of contemporary medicine, Terry’s and Janet’s stories illustrate families’ agony in deciding how to care for their loved ones facing irreversible decline. Beginning with recollections of his own father’s death and the role of ethicists in an increasingly complicated medical world, in That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care journalist Tim Falconer explores how modern high-tech medicine has ironically made dying worse, rather than better. Using stories of...