Affirming Life in the Face of Death: Ricoeur’s Living Up to Death as a modern ars moriendi and a lesson for palliative care

In his posthumously published Living Up to Death Paul Ricoeur left an impressive testimony on what it means to live at a high old age with death approaching. In this article I present him as a teacher who reminds us of valuable lessons taught by patients in palliative care and their caretakers who a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medicine, health care, and philosophy health care, and philosophy, 2014-11, Vol.17 (4), p.509-518
Main Author: de Lange, Ds Frits
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude to Death
Bioethics
Death
Death & dying
Dissertations & theses
Education
Ethics
Humans
Medical Law
Original Contribution
Palliative Care
Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
Philosophy of Medicine
Philosophy, Medical
Testimony
Theory of Medicine/Bioethics
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Summary:In his posthumously published Living Up to Death Paul Ricoeur left an impressive testimony on what it means to live at a high old age with death approaching. In this article I present him as a teacher who reminds us of valuable lessons taught by patients in palliative care and their caretakers who accompany them on their way to death, and also as a guide in our search for a modern ars moriendi, after—what many at least experience as—the breakdown of traditional religious belief in a personal afterlife. These lessons can be summarized in the following theses. ‘Living up to death, one cannot experience one’s own death. Therefore, never consider someone dying as moribund’. ‘Though everybody is alone in dying, nobody should die alone.’ ‘The preparation for death is an affirmation of life’. ‘Life experienced as a gift can be given up’. The plausibility of the last thesis, however, may go beyond the confines of austere philosophical thinking.
ISSN:1386-7423
1572-8633
DOI:10.1007/s11019-013-9526-9