Life at the end of life: beliefs about individual life after death and "good death" models - a qualitative study.
BACKGROUND
Different ideas of "good death" may influence the effectiveness of end-of-life care in patients with different ethos. This study aimed to identify the influence of believing in individual life after death on "good death" models.


METHODS
Semi structured-interview to 8 persons, 4 believers and 4 non-believers in individual life after death from the general Italian population. Analysis of the transcribed text according to the method suggested by Mc Cracken.


RESULTS
The analysis has shown a diverse and coherent conceptualization of death according to whether the subjects believe or not in individual life after death. Believers, for whom death marks the passage to a new dimension, prefer to be unaware of dying, while non-believers, for whom death is the end of the individual, prefer to be conscious until the very end of life. However some important aspects in common have been identified, i.e. having close people nearby, receiving assistance from experts, or the preference for a soft atmosphere around the dying person.


CONCLUSIONS
There are aspects in common and aspects in contrast between believers and non-believers in individual life after death: while sharing many aspects of what a "good death" ought to be, they have opposite stands on being aware of dying. A plurality of models should be foreseen, accepting, in this case, their practical and theoretical implications.
Toscani
Franco
F
Lino Maestroni Institute for Research in Palliative Medicine, Via Palestro 1, 26100 Cremona, Italy. toscani.f@dinet.it
Borreani
Claudia
C
Boeri
Paolo
P
Miccinesi
Guido
G
D001364:Awareness; D003469:Culture; D003643:Death; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013727:Terminal Care; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*