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Conceptual Barriers to Palliative Care and Enlightenment From Chuang-tze’s Thoughts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2020

JUNXIANG LIU ,
TIANYU ZHANG ,
YIYAO LIAN ,
FEI LI  and
XIAOHONG NING
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Abstract

This paper claims that palliative care (PC) is a suitable approach for offering comprehensive support to patients with life-threatening illness and unavoidable asthenia, to enhance their quality of life in aging and chronic illness. There are however some conceptual barriers to accessing that care on the Chinese Mainland: (1) Death-denying culture and society; (2) Misguidance and malpractice derived from the biomedical model; (3) Prejudice against PC and certain deviant understandings of filial piety culture. To counter these obstacles, the study introduces the philosophy of Chinese Taoist Chuang-tze to enlighten the public from ignorance and remove some illusions about death and dying; inspire people to face and accept illness and death calmly, and keep harmony and inner peace of mind to alleviate suffering, with the aim of providing wisdom and a shift of attitude toward life and death. Chuang-tze’s thoughts are consistent with the provision of palliative care, and to a certain degree, can promote its acceptability and delivery, and the conception of good death in practice.

Keywords

Palliative careConceptual barriersChuang-tzeLifeDeath‘Tao’
Type
Special Section: Death, Dilemmas, and Decisions
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 386 - 394
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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Notes

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