Dying in a hospital. Reflections and comments on Philippe Ariés' work

Abstract

The denial of death and the suppression of any cultural trace of it, outside TV or theatre, is a fact that should but does not surprise us. We are born and we die under an authorized and technical professional control; we are supervised as we arrive and as we leave this world. Once, to die was a normal event and not a tragedy or a traumatic fact as it is nowadays. People waited for the moment of death with a submission and an understanding approach. People knew the unequivocal sings of the moment of death. Why can’t we bear the vision of death? Why do we entrust this moment to hospitals and health care institutions? In this essay, with Philippe Ariés’ ideas as a starting-point, I will expose some of the notions and opinions about today’s most common way to die (which is in a hospital), about medical power, our everyday progressive medicalisation and the nursing role in the process of “dying in hospital”.

Keywords

• Muerte
• Medicalización
• Sufrimiento
• Cuidados paliativos
• Ética
• Ariés, Philippe
• Enfermería