Review: Herbert C. Northcott on The Study of Dying

Allan Kellehear, ed., The Study of Dying: From Autonomy to Transformation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 298 pp. $US 29.99 paper (978-0-521-73905-4), $US 75.00 hardcover (978-0-521-51767-6)

This collection of twelve essays addresses the question, “What is it like to die?”. It focuses on the dying process that unfolds in the minutes, hours, days, and sometimes weeks or months before death. In particular this book examines the physical, psychological, behavioural, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of the experience of dying. The authors are scholars and clinicians who represent a range of disciplines, including social and behavioural studies, veterinary medicine, biomedicine including psychiatry and neurobiology, palliative medicine, nursing, sociology and demography, history, philosophy, art, literature, popular culture, theology and religion. Read more