Yesterday I put up a piece on the debate or kerfuffle regarding Lisa Boncheck Adams and the Kellers. You can read that here. This weeks Lancet has a book review by John E. Ellershaw. He reviewed “Transforming the Culture of Dying: the Work of the Project on Death in America” by David Clark. The review and the book add an important and clear voice to the entire debate swirling about. And I will add in my opinion support the Kellers message.
Ellershaw identifies the books focus as “changing the culture around dying”. I believe that is happening but the focus on dying seems to fly in the face of
…the long road both mapped and trodden by an initially small minority of the medical, care, academic, philanthropic, and policy community who attempted to bring palliative care to parity with a medical culture driven by the curative ideal. This is not of course to say that the curative ideal is wrong, but it is to challenge whether it should be the only ideal and whether we have the right balance between cure and care.
That is key and critica,l striking a balance between cure and care. Helping individuals and families identify within themselves their goal of cure or care and how they want to achieve it. Read the review. I am going to order the book. Those of us who are seeking to change the culture of dying need this resource in order to drive our message.