Thursday, 16 April 2009

NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR

It was good to meet some regular seminar attendees and some new faces at the Sun Fair on April 5. The Sun Fair is one of the premier events in Western Australia and has been promoting sustainable technologies since 2004. Some of you will have seen Fair coordinator Jonathon Thwaites speaking at our seminar on Greening Australia last year. Jonathon works tirelessly to educate people about energy technologies and is himself a real practitioner in the field, inventing affordable DIY sustainable technologies and developing a range of educational displays for everything from schools to Council exhibitions. Events like this bring many likeminded people together. Displays ranged from photovoltaic cells; electric cars, motor bikes and bicycles; permaculture; passive solar housing design; cleaning products; and a number of organisations covering renewable energy, sustainable population and green concerns. We believe strongly in the value of events like the Sun Fair that enable groups like this to bring their messages to the public. We plan to provide links to some of these organisations on our web site in the future.

Professor Neville Bruce
Director, Centre for Integrated Human Studies

NEXT SEMINAR: EDUCATION FOR A GLOBALISED WORLD April 22

What should the well-educated citizen of Australia know in order to approach the challenges of the 21st century? Must we know our past in order to chart our future? What is the role of universities in general – and this university in particular – in educating the brightest minds to lead us forward? What values must these bright minds hold? We will hear from Indigenous history teacher Aileen Walsh , Deputy Vice-Chancellor Bill Louden , and Canon Frank Sheehan ; Neville Bruce will chair. It’s free and all are welcome. The seminar is at 5.30 pm in Seminar Room 1.81 on the first floor of the School of Anatomy and Human Biology.

NOTES FROM THE LAST SEMINAR, MORTALITY
Chair Prof Carmen Lawrence noted in her introduction that humans are unique in their awareness of the inevitability of death.

Prof Bev McNamara stated that both her research and personal experience of the deaths of family members and friends informed her remarks. She did not entirely agree with the assertion that we are a death-denying society: she felt most people thought of death on a “need-to-know” basis, that is, only when they had to. Public reaction to the death of Princess Diana was an indication of the depth of people’s responses. Bev examined the concept of a “good death”. While many people describe a good death as one which is sudden, and that they know nothing about, others characterise it as occurring after business is settled and goodbyes said; after a good life; with dignity; with control; at a time of their choosing; and when they are ready. Statistics about life expectancy and cause of death (we are most likely to die from heart disease or cancer, but death from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease is becoming increasingly common) suggest that some of these attributes are more achievable than others. Increasingly the place of death is in hospitals, and people know they are dying. A survey of carers also found most people were accepting of dying. Bev described how the concept of a good death has changed over time with the increasing medicalisation of death, and noted it still varies between different cultures. Finally she described some of the issues and constraints around planning our own “good death”.

Dr Susannah Thompson , a historian, was motivated to do her research into attitudes to perinatal mortality by personal experience which prompted older women to tell her their stories. She said that despite changes over the 20th century, perinatal mortality (defined as the death of the foetus in utero or of the neonate up to four weeks of age) has never been seen as a good death. Over broadly three periods: pre-medicalisation of childbirth, the medicalised period, and the 1970s and 80s onward, historical attitudes to mourning informed responses to perinatal mortality. During WWI, for example, grief was seen as self-indulgent. In the pre-medicalised period, perinatal mortality was common and was viewed fatalistically, but evidence – for example, from cemeteries – showed that people did mourn and memorialise the loss of babies. As childbirth became safer in the period of medicalisation, the attitude was one of “least said, soonest mended”. In order to “protect” women from grief, babies were taken away and women often did not even see them, and men were expected to be stoic. In the 70s and 80s, in concert with wider movements in women’s liberation and childbirth reform, and in response to knowledge from researchers like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, there was another shift. It became more common for the attachment of mother and baby to be recognised and supported. Midwives, social workers and chaplains participated in new ways of dealing with perinatal mortality and burial and cremation practices changed. Currently our faith in and use of medical technology supports the idea of the foetus as a baby earlier and earlier in the pregnancy and promotes an idealistic expectation of safety. Some people are questioning whether the rituals around perinatal mortality have gone too far.

Revd Graeme Manolas reminded us that Thanatos was the Greek god of death who gave his name (“only in America!”) to thanatology, the study of death. Many philosophers had made considered remarks about death: Graeme’s favourite was Aristotle’s “It is best to quit life, just as we leave a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.” Graeme believes we are in an age of death denial. If we do not nurture and are not aware of our spirituality, bereavement, which is powerful and horrible, can leave us in spiritual chaos. But a journey through grief to resolution can be enriching. Resolution is aided by expression: “The grief that does not ‘speak’ in some way – through crying or talking or ritual activity; through tributes of charity or creative expression – remains unresolved. And what a powerful and destructive force it has for years to come!” (Sarah York, Remembering Well, Jossey Bass, 2000) Ritual is, Graeme said, a vital way to deal with grief. He feared for the wellbeing of a society which had largely turned away from religious ritual, which offered a valuable enrichment to people journeying through grief.

Questions and comments included :

  • Do doctors always now tell patients they are dying?
  • What is the status of legislation regarding refusing medical treatment?
  • Does our growing health system act at odds with our need to accept death, and how could this pattern be broken?
  • It is hard for our society to come to grips with issues around death because we are still in the early stages of having access to superior understandings through research and technology.
  • People who donate their bodies to science must have faced up to their own death. The donation process can be fraught with difficulty for families and could be improved.
  • There is only one functioning hospice in Perth, but palliative care units in hospitals can offer similar care and services.

ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR INTEGRATED HUMAN STUDIES

You can find out more about the Centre and about IHS at our web site www.ihs.uwa.edu.au . If you are interested in enrolling in postgraduate courses in IHS, please contact the Director, Prof Neville Bruce on 6488 3292 or email [email protected] .

Tags

Channels
Teaching and Learning
Groups
Integrated Human Studies