The Doctor, the Dead and the Relatives

Abstract

Doctors and health-care professionals often have to deal with the meaning of death and mourning of the deceased patient's family members; confrontation with various cultures, religious sensitivities and different and sometimes conflicting ethical values require commitment and human availability of doctors even in postmortem practices. The possibility for the individual to psychically ‘access’ the ‘death event’, therefore, has a decisive influence on the mourning process. The process of mourning, the pain and anguish of death and the implementation of massive psychic defence mechanisms do not concern only the patient at the end of life or family members, but rather the whole community that faces that particular experience. A fundamental aspect of the mourning process, as well as the right of family members, is the possibility of greeting the deceased. The certificate becomes a testimony of the passage from life to death.