Madam, – Your Editorial (July 19th) many times uses the phrase “end-of-life”. That follows the practice of hospice services everywhere. After a nationwide “Forum on End of Life” consultation launched by President Mary McAleese in March 2009, the Irish Hospice Foundation recently formed a National Council of the Forum on End of Life in Ireland, chaired by former Supreme Court Judge Catherine McGuinness.
Yet, to avoid ambiguity shouldn’t “Earth” be inserted before “Life”? “End of Life” suggests that, as Secularists believe, death ends life – that, as a prominent Irish youth mental health psychologist said, “This life is the one we have. This is it”.
“End of Earth Life” would accommodate both those who so believe and those – probably at least 95 per cent of Irish people – who believe that death begins the Hereafter life stage that dying people may do things to optimise.
This isn’t merely a matter of semantics, nor does it doubt the wonderful work done by hospice staffs. It is mainly a matter of removing ambiguity to make palliative care – for which, it is generally agreed, there is great need – thinking, and service all-inclusive. Dying is a radically different experience if one believes it is a prelude to a beginning as well as an ending. – Yours, etc,