This thesis explores some of the different ways in which people anticipate their dying in the U.K. Through an ethnographic exploration of an arts initiative, a social movement, a legal case, and a new law, this thesis asks the question: how do people seek to gain recognition for their dying in the 21st Century? It is argued here that this recognition is deemed important because it is the last opportunity for people’s unique identity, as they perceive it, to be reflected back at them in the faces of those who witness their dying and who stand alongside them. This witnessing is often performed in public spaces, for example: a hospice day centre; in the media spotlight; at a right-to-die conference; or in a court of law, and it is in these places where people hope that their individualised dying self will be authenticated. This thesis focuses on what happens in these public spaces and asks whether recognition is always possible. It concludes by suggesting that there are some things which are perhaps too private, too particular, and too uncertain to be recognised or authenticated in the way in which people might wish. Section One of this thesis focuses on the activities of an arts charity which works in hospices in the U.K. and tries to elicit testimony from dying patients. Section Two focuses on the right-to-die movement: its history, politics, and the activists which bring it to life. Section Three focuses on the legal regulation of death through careful examination of a legal challenge and a new law which both involve people making anticipatory decisions about how they wish to die. As this thesis shows, people’s dying testimony can take many different forms (artistic, legal, bureaucratic), and it can be represented in terms of suffering or transcendence. But the overwhelming desire of the people who feature in this thesis is to have the particularity of their lives, which is mirrored in the particularity of their deaths, publicly recognised.

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Although psychical research identified through structured research the commonality of anomalous experiences for the bereaved from as early as the 1880s, it wasn’t until the 1970s with the publication of a medical doctorate on such phenomena that medical communities and social science began to recognise them too. Beyond this point, research became more popular on the subject. Extensive research conducted on post-death experiences (aka, Post-Death Contacts – ADCs) since the 1970s, has largely focused on what impact they have on the bereaved, rather than the ontology of the phenomena themselves. All such studies have found these experiences to be therapeutic for the bereaved, and a natural aid to recovery. However, no research findings to this point have been presented on what cognitive mechanisms create the therapeutic gains experienced, as a direct result of the spontaneous anomalous experiences. This thesis set out to investigate what makes such experience therapeutic, and aid the process of recovery from grief. From a critical review of the previous literature, it was noted that several of the extensive studies, and related popular literature, identified hope to a consistent reported outcome of such experiences. However, no existing studies appeared to have investigated its presence and process in this context. Therefore, a mixed method study design was developed to investigate the impact of such experiences further and the role of hope within them. A questionnaire approach of validated scales found levels of hope to be significantly higher in groups of the bereaved who do report post-death experience than those who don’t. The bereaved who do not report such experiences appear to encounter a significant drop in hope. Content and thematic analyses were conducted on written feedback of experiences collected from the questionnaires; this highlighted the variety of experiences and their commonality. It also highlighted significant shifts in ‘states of mind’ from negative to positive emotions, from the point of loss, to following the first anomalous encounter. Continued bonds with the deceased were also expressed, as well as previously noted therapeutic gains and themes of hope. In-depth interviews were conducted as the final study of this thesis, with an interpretative phenomenological analysis applied to the data. New findings are presented on the personal changes that take place within post-death events. Experients defined hope and how they saw it acting within their lives and experiences as a support system to feelings of loss, which fell in line with previous positive psychology theories on hope. Several key points are concluded. Firstly, the findings of this thesis have practical applications to clinical practice surrounding palliative care and applied positive psychology, regarding the importance of anomalous experiences encountered by the bereaved. Secondly, the thesis and its findings demonstrate the multi-disciplinary approaches which can be taken to parapsychological issues, in this case combining positive psychology, thanatology and healthcare. And finally, the thesis highlights the usefulness of the mixed method approaches, to provide ‘sweeping maps’ of any given phenomena under investigation, particularly in cases where the previous research findings are limited or are yet to be explored.

The thesis deals with the subject of dying and death and focuses on secondary school students' awareness of this issue. The theoretical part of the thesis describes stages of dying, the needs of a dying person and their emotional state. Furthermore, it distinguishes between dying at home and dying in a health care institution. In the following chapters, the thesis focuses on palliative care, the process of grieving, funeral rites and the issue of euthanasia. The method of the theory was reading of literature that specializes in the issue. The practical part of the thesis compares data from questionnaires given to secondary school students on the topic of death and dying. The research shows that the students' awareness of the issue is considerably low - 84% respondents did not know what the term "palliative care" meant, 88% respondents did not know what the term "hospice" meant and 74% respondents were not familiar with the term "euthanasia". The research has found that there is a need to broaden the secondary school students' knowledge on the topic of dying. KEYWORDS thanatology, dying, death, euthanasia, palliative care

Our research dealt with the support for the relatives in their final goodbyes to the deceased. We set ourselves two goals for our work upon the information obtained. The first one was to find out to what extent relatives are enabled to stay at the bed of a dying and deceased person in a hospital. The other goal was to make clear in what manners the final goodbyes are arranged in a hospital. Six research questions were then set: To what extent are relatives enabled to stay at the bed of a dying and deceased person in a hospital? In what setting are relatives given the information on the death? How are patient's belongings handed over to the survivors? How are the final goodbyes to the deceased arranged? How does the hospital staff care about the bereaved? And to what extent are the relatives enabled to speak to a priest or a psychologist? We chose a qualitative research method based on a semi structured interview for the research. The research was held in the České Budějovice Hospital and in the Písek Hospital at the LTC and Anaesthetic departments. 16 nurses participated on the interviews altogether. We found from the performed interviews that nurses allow relatives to stay at the bed of a dying person. They stressed the importance of an agreement and the respect to the run of the department. We also found out that the message of a client's death is usually communicated on the phone. A subsequent talk between a physician and the relatives is only held upon request of the relatives, mostly in the privacy of an office or a surgery. The handover of the belongings by a nurse is not so often held in privacy. The nurse first expresses her sympathy to the relatives after their arrival, then the handover of the belongings against an ID follows, they are checked and formalities are arranged. The only support provided at the handover of the belongings was in the form of reference to a priest or a physician. The handover of the belongings thus resembles a routine where only a minimum of the nurses care of sensitive communication and empathy. The replies of the nurses from the LTC and the Anaesthetic departments differed in the issue of the final goodbyes. At the Anaesthetic department the relatives always have the possibility of the final goodbyes. The final goodbyes are automatically allowed to the family of an organ donor. At the LTC, on the other hand, the bereaved must show active interest in the last goodbyes, which are allowed to them at a room or in a department bathroom. Although there is a final goodbye room at the pathology department of the Písek Hospital, most of the nurses did not know about this possibility or just were not sure. Another situation is in the case of death at presence of the family. In such an instance the relatives may stay at the bed how long they need. Nevertheless, the care focused directly on the client's family was what we missed about the nurses. A rare opinion was that some nurses mentioned a direct form of support, some do realize its absence and would appreciate an improvement, however the rest of the nurses do not consider a direct support for the family necessary or they do not perceive its absence. A priest was the most frequently mentioned profession. Nurses actively offer his services to clients and their families. Cooperation with a hospital priest and the possibility to visit the Space of Silence are very popular in Písek. Contracted priests, who were also praised by most of the nurses, visit the hospital in České Budějovice. There were however two remarks in this relation, that the hospital should have its priest and also a chapel. Cooperation with a hospital psychologist was only mentioned in two cases. A feedback for the head nurses of the named hospitals will be the output of the thesis. The purpose of the work is to offer and to the strengthen support to families and give them the opportunity to say their final goodbyes.

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of death and dying. The paper tries to compare the obtained findings from research conducted in their own home for elderly Welfare Centre Netolice and social assistance Vodnany and results from the literature. The aim of the study was to determine how workers home for the elderly perceive death and dying.

This thesis works at the discussion on euthanasia in Czech daily press since 1996. The goal of this thesis is summarizing the discussion on euthanasia in selected Czech daily newspapers, classification and sorting out the opinions in the daily press, comparison of opinions in comparison with professional literature. Apart from that, the other goal is to find out the social context in which way the discussion on euthanasia is presented in daily newspapers.

This work is focused on death and dying in ancienit Greece and Rome nad at times today. The purpose of this work was comparinf differences between theese two different times of our history and pointing to differences in burial rites and perception of the death. Comparing two different eras of our history I found out, that death was percieved differently eventhoug there were few common elements. Burial rites of antic people are in thein modified version accomplished nowadays too.

This research focused on experiences of dying patients and hospice nurses in a hospice unit. The research objectives were to (i) acquire more extensive knowledge about how dying patients and hospice nurses experience life and death and (ii) describe patients who were cared for during a 10-year period in an inpatient hospice ward. Data were gathered via interviews with 19 nurses and 11 patients. An interpretive description method was used to analyze interview results. Data were also gathered from institutional care records that included gender, age, marital status, diagnosis, referral source, and length of stay (666 women and 555 men). Descriptive statistics were used to describe basic features of the study's data and to compare differences between women and men. The main finding from interviewing the nurses was that they were struggling to acknowledge and unveil the person within the weakening body. In doing so, they used various strategies such as (i) striving to understand patients’ experiences of body function loss; (ii) encouraging patients to uphold body functions and daily habits; (iii) acknowledging and balancing patients’ need for body control; and (iv) providing tender care for the body. After 2 years of work in hospice care, nurses described that facing the dying and death of many patients had an impact on daily work and private life. The close relationship with the dying patient led to existential issues concerning the meaning of life and death, which were conceptualized into this theme: death as an agent of change. Eleven years later, the presence of death took a less dominant place in the nurses’ lives, and the theme became: death as a companion in life. In the long-term, nurses emphasized that their relationships with dying patients fostered their professional and personal growth. The findings from interviewing the patients revealed that when death became a reality, life took on new meaning, and they acquired new values that were important to preserve or protect; this triggered need for feeling secure within this situation. These revelations were manifest in three sub-themes: (i) when possible death becomes a reality; (ii) living with death as a reality, and (iii) a need for a feeling of security. And this main theme was conceptualized: making sense of life close to death. Results regarding patients in hospice ward care over a 10-year period revealed significant differences between women and men. More women than men were single, had cancer with relatively short trajectories, and were referred from the oncology department. More men than women were diagnosed with types of cancer with somewhat longer trajectories. Despite longer trajectories, length of stay was shorter for men than for women. The most frequent referral source was the hospital. But compared to women, men (particularly younger men) were more often referred from home-based hospice care. The findings expand knowledge about dying and its various configurations; consequently, care and support needs will vary. For the dying person, it is important to know that care is provided according to the person’s preferences and given when needed.