BMJ  2005;330 (9 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7495.0-g

Editor's choice

A good death, or a public one?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Many people might think that part of a good death is privacy—or at least having some say over how wide should be the circle of family and friends who come to talk and touch and give support. But these last two weeks have seen two very public deaths—with room to doubt that the victims would have wanted it that way.

Last weekend the pope died. Even in a non-Catholic country such as Britain, a casual listener to the radio or watcher of TV could not help notice how closely each stage of the pope's dying was marked and reported on. As Sophie Aire says in her media review (p 850), "No patient with Parkinson's disease has ever died such a public death." Almost 30 years ago, when General Franco, Spain's dictator, died, the media was criticised for covering every detail of his dying days. But, as Arie points . . . [Full text of this article]

Jane Smith, deputy editor

(jsmith@bmj.com)


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