ABSTRACT

In the 1960s, Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the present-day hospice movement, was asked which was more important in the care of the dying – the spiritual or the medical – and she replied that the two are in fact inextricably mingled (Saunders, 1960). Saunders founded the modern hospice movement based on three principles: pain control, the importance of a family or community environment, and engagement with the dying person’s most deeply rooted religious beliefs. While the first two of Saunders’s principles have been well studied, the third, engagement with the dying person’s spirituality or religion, has not. This chapter answers the question: “How is the notion of ‘good death’ in the context of hospice palliative care understood within the major religious traditions?” Just as we try to avoid making assumptions about cultural values that are different from our own, we ought never to assume that “knowing” an individual’s religious affiliation translates into “knowing” what he or she believes about a good death. To know someone’s religious identity is simply the starting point in a conversation about that individual’s personal definition of what a good death means.