erhaps did not always get the relief that she needed because it was not available at the time or because she did not want to make a fuss.
There are other perspectives, though. I have read that for Hindus and Buddhists, pain and suffering during the dying process are not as readily relieved because the individuals can work off bad karma through the suffering. In addition, in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the highest of the spiritual teachers talked about in the book tried to avoid over-medicating too close to death. They believed that this interfered with their conscious awareness of their experience. They also believed that it would interfere with their rebirth, not allowing them to be reborn in one of the better worlds that were available to the soul. Thus, relieving pain was less important to them than preparing themselves spiritually and consciously for dying with as much awareness as possible, thus allowing them greater choice in the soul's next place and condition of rebirth (Rinpoche et al., 1994).
The Good Death. This is a central theme, and a cross-cultural concern, too. All of this material has an interest in defining a good death and helping people to obtain one.
For example, the book by Byock (1990) emphasized the projects that people needed to complete in order to obtain a good death. Although Byock rejected the term "good death" in favor of the term "dying well," they are very similar conceptions. He simply is redefining it in his terms and coming up with his ideas of what constitutes dying well as developed from his own personal and professional experience.
There are several things involved in dying well, and they may vary from patient to patient. However, one that Byock emphasized was helping the individual to accomplish relationship completion. This involved five different kinds of activities, including forgiving the person, asking for forgiveness, thanking the individual, telling them that you ...