People die differently in different settings

In rural Africa, many people with cancer die in pain but at peace with themselves. In the United Kingdom, patients have less pain but have more distress relating to the meaning and purpose of life. Murray and colleagues (p 368) conducted interviews with people with cancer in rural Kenya and Midlothian, Scotland, and found a great contrast in the provision of palliative care. New ways to improve the physical care of dying people in Africa must be found, without damaging the support currently provided by families and communities. Western medicine can learn from developing countries how to empower families and community structures and how to demedicalise death.

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Relevant Article

Dying from cancer in developed and developing countries: lessons from two qualitative interview studies of patients and their carers

Scott A Murray, Elizabeth Grant, Angus Grant, and Marilyn Kendall
BMJ 2003 326: 368. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]