Curriculum reform in death education: The modern resurrection ofArs Moriendi

... The purpose of death education, therefore, must be to teach medical personnel how to assist their patients to achieve their private needs. Philosophically and religiously, the good death is purposeful and meaningful. It may or may not entail relief of suffering. Medically, the experience of death may be manipulated in a number of different directions. Whether sentience is worth preserving at the expense of pain, or vice versa, for example, is not the physician's decision: it is the patient's. One cannot guarantee that death will be easy for anyone: but because medical personnel must generally turn from the dying to attend to the living, thoughtful educational curricula can improve the lot of all three.