Good Death Through Time

by Caitlin Mahar

A Senate committee investigation of Australia’s Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995, the first legislation in the world which allowed doctors to actively assist patients to die, found that for the vast majority of Indigenous Territorians, the idea that a physician—or anyone else—should help end a dying, suffering person’s life was so foreign that in some instances it proved almost impossible to translate. This book explores how such a death became a thinkable—even desirable—way to die for so many others in Western cultures. Though ‘euthanasia,’ meaning ‘good death,’ derives from ancient Greece, for the Greeks this was a matter of Fate, or a gift the gods bestowed on the virtuous or simply lucky. Caring for the dying was not part of the doctor’s remit. For the Victorians, a good death meant one blessed by God and widespread belief in a divine design and the value of suffering created resistance to new forms of pain relief.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2023

Reviews

[August · Rating 4 out of 5]

“… like all rituals of dying, voluntary assisted dying is very much a social production. Acknowledging the historical and cultural contingency of contemporary rituals associated with what is called a ‘good death’ might illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of the responses to death and suffering that predominate here and now.”

I think the above quote illustrates why this book is important. I’d highly recommend it. I’m definitely now interested in non-western perceptions of the topic, as that was sorely missing from this book, apart from brief mentions of indigenous peoples from Australia and the USA.

Also, fuck Peter Singer.

[Beatrice Braun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a uni thesis. Obviously well researched given bibliography and notes take up a third of the book..Because much of the research covers the same ground the resulting book is ponderous and repetitive.

I would have preferred author to be upfront about her position on the topic rather than "assuming " a neutral position because I found myself annoyed when I surmised bias was in evidence several times.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grim topic, great book. My review for the Saturday Paper is here: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/c...