Epilogue Flashcards
terror management theory
The idea that people adopt cultural values and moral principles in order to cope with their fear of death. This system of beliefs protects individuals from anxiety about their mortality and bolsters their self-esteem.
Hospice
An institution or program in which terminally ill patients receive palliative care to reduce suffering; family and friends of the dying are helped as well.
Palliative care
Medical treatment designed primarily to provide physical and emotional comfort to the dying patient and guidance to his or her loved ones.
Double Effect
When an action (such as administering opiates) has both a positive effect (relieving a terminally ill person’s pain) and a negative effect (hastening death by suppressing respiration).
Passive Euthanasia
When a seriously ill person is allowed to die naturally, without active attempts to prolong life.
DNR order
A written order from a physician (sometimes initiated by a patient’s advance directive or by a health care proxy’s request) that no attempt should be made to revive a patient if they suffer cardiac or respiratory arrest.
POLST (physician-ordered life-sustaining treatment)
An order from a doctor regarding end-of-life care that advises nurses and other medical staff about which treatments (e.g., feeding, antibiotics, respirators) should be used or not used. It is similar to a living will, but it is written for medical professionals, and thus is more specific.
Active Euthanasia
When someone does something that hastens another person’s death, with the intention of ending that person’s suffering.
physician-assisted suicide
A form of active euthanasia in which a doctor provides the means for someone to end his or her own life, usually by prescribing lethal drugs.
Advance Directives
Any description of what a person wants to happen as they die and after they die. This can include medical measures, visitors, funeral arrangements, cremation, and so on.
Living Will
A document that indicates what medical intervention an individual prefers if he or she is not conscious when a decision is to be expressed. For example, some do not want mechanical breathing.
Health Care Proxy
A person chosen to make medical decisions if a patient is unable to do so, as when in a coma.
Grief
The deep sorrow that people feel at the death of another. Grief is personal and unpredictable.
Complicated Grief
A type of grief that impedes a person’s future life, usually because the person clings to sorrow or is buffeted by contradictory emotions.
Absent Grief
When mourners do not grieve, either because other people do not allow expressions of grief or because the mourners do not allow themselves to feel sadness.
