Dying Well in Nursing Homes During Covid-19 and Beyond: The Need for a Relational and Familial Ethic
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-5-2021
Publication Title
Bioethics
Volume
35
Issue
6
Pages
1-14
Publisher Name
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Abstract
This paper applies a relational and familial ethic to address concerns relating to nursing home deaths and advance care planning during Covid-19 and beyond. The deaths of our elderly in nursing homes during this pandemic have been made more complicated by the restriction of visitors even at the end of life, a time when families would normally be present. While we must be vigilant about preventing unnecessary deaths caused by coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, some deaths of our elders are inevitable. Thus, it is essential that advanced care planning occurs in a way that upholds the familial and relational aspects of elders’ lives that often matter to them the most. We invoke concepts from feminist ethicists like Hilde Lindemann and Eva Kittay and introduce Avery Weisman and Thomas Hackett’s concept of “appropriate death” to suggest better ways of planning for those deaths of our elderly that cannot be avoided. Our hope is to allow for deaths that are as meaningful as possible for both the elderly and the family members who survive them.
Recommended Citation
Parks, Jennifer and Howard, Maria. Dying Well in Nursing Homes During Covid-19 and Beyond: The Need for a Relational and Familial Ethic. Bioethics, 35, 6: 1-14, 2021. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12881
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Copyright Statement
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2021.
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Comments
Author Posting. © John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2021. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Parks JA, Howard M. Dying well in nursing homes during COVID-19 and beyond: The need for a relational and familial ethic. Bioethics. 2021; 35: 589–595, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12881. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.