What is it about?
This paper discusses how healthcare's efforts to defeat death have led to a crisis in caring.It's efforts to escape death by defeating it have upset the balance between task-oriented caring and relationship-oriented caring. Healthcare's belief that it can defeat death is influenced by the escapist theology of St. Augustine's interpretation of Genesis 1-3. An effective response to the crisis in caring emphasizes an encounter theology that encounters death as a presence. Such an encounter can restore a balance to task-and relationship-oriented caring.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
I believe healthcare is driven more by it's belief that it can actually defeat death than by economic factors. Such a belief changes the effectiveness of of caring for the sick is rendered.
Perspectives
This paper is influenced by my experience in 1994 when my mother died. She went through an experimental surgery for emphysema. When it became apparent she would not survive the doctor visits and responses of nurses became less frequent. They also became more annoyed because my mother seemed non compliant. At one point my sister and I had to consult the hospital ethics committee regarding her wishes about remaining on the respirator.
Dr Joseph Baroody
Baroody Pastoral Counseling
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: What Life Says to Death: The Crisis in Caring, The Caregiver Journal, December 1996, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/1077842x.1996.10781750.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
