April 24, 2016, Sarah Knapton Marriage has long been thought to be beneficial – both in sickness and in health. But a study suggests that widows actually suffer less stress and frailty than wives whose husbands are still alive. The findings are in contrast to previous research which showed marriage has a protective effect onRead more
Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times, Dec 18, 2016 US-based Indian-American Paul Kalanithi was 15 months away from completing his training as a neurosurgeon at age 36 when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The cancer was inoperable, he was going to die. “When Breath Becomes Air” is a memoir that begins with him examiningRead more
By Olivia Willis for Ladies, We Need To Talk, posted 27 May 2018. It’s remarkably common, and yet barely spoken about. Up to one in four pregnancies in Australia end in miscarriage. But an unwritten social rule that says we should keep pregnancy news quiet (at least for the first 12 weeks) means that manyRead more
Jennie Dear, Sep 9, 2016 – The Atlantic My mother and I sat across from the hospice nurse in my parents’ Colorado home. It was 2005, and my mother had reached the end of treatments for metastatic breast cancer. A month or two earlier, she’d been able to take the dog for daily walks inRead more
ABC Radio Sydney, by Linda Mottram and Matthew Bevan 11 May 2015. How do you talk to the grieving parent of a dead child? There is a “conspiracy of silence” when children die in our society, says a visiting bereavement expert. And we no longer have the time or the understanding of death that enablesRead more
Tommaso Bruni, 11 October, 2016 Tommaso is a research associate in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College in London, UK. He is interested in the ethics of clinical research, the ethics of neuroscience, and bioethics. Published in association with The London Health and Society Hub, an Aeon Partner John Smith,Read more
Ruth sits with me crying. It is our first session together and she started crying from the moment she began to speak. In between sobs she told me her story. She had been married for 34 years and had a very close relationship with her husband Max. They did everything together-worked in the family business,Read more
By David Malham New York Times, March 11, 2015 I would not have chosen A.L.S. at the Pick Your Disease store, but there are worse things that can happen and worse ways for a life to end. The very fact that it was happening to me and not to my family was itself a relief.Read more
By Cate Grant, updated 26 Apr 2018 Carleon Russell was three months pregnant with her second baby when her nine-month-old daughter Verity died. “I wanted to die, when I discovered my baby dead. I just tried to stop breathing and stop existing,” she said. “She was a healthy, beautiful little girl, who strangled in herRead more
By James Bullen, ABC, 29 Jun 2016 Doctors have called for the public to discuss end of life care with their loved ones after a study revealed one third of elderly patients with advanced or terminal illnesses receive unnecessary treatment in the last six months of their lives. The global analysis of 38 studies ofRead more
