Headstones in Calvary Cemetery in the Borough of Queens in New York (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)
During a global pandemic, it may be surprising that more people aren’t talking about death and specifically, their final wishes.
Dr. Lydia Dugdale has been seeing this scenario play out over the past year with some of her patients in New York. Dugdale is a medical ethicist and explores the concept that part of living well is dying well in her book, The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom.
People spend their entire lives fighting back against death as part of the human condition. Some doctors may fear death, too, but physicians need to talk with patients about their end of life wishes especially during the pandemic, she says.