title: Issues with dying patients.
abstract: Doctors have the privilege of looking after patients from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Yet, the holistic approach to patients is interfered with by the doctor's role as a warrior against death, where death's everpresent claim on our lives, and its final victory, are ignored. This paper attempts to explore why doctors are in their current position, the mechanisms for ignoring death which are shared by doctors and patients, the nature of the fear of death, and practical implications for the treatment of dying patients. More and more patients die now in medical settings. It is incumbent on doctors to understand the dying process, if much unnecessary suffering is to be prevented.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002648:Child; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D012043:Regression, Psychology