During the second half of the twentieth century, the world’s outlook on end of life care
began to change.
Traditionally, doctors have focused on curing illness or injury, rather than providing non
curative pain management, and end of life care.
Today, administering pain relieving drugs like morphine has gone from being a “last
resort” to what some call a “gold standard”.
But not every country has made progress.
So we wanted to know, if given the choice, where is the best place to die?
Well, as the average life expectancy continues to rise, more people are dying from terminal
or chronic illnesses.
Meanwhile, many doctors have refused to prescribe pain medication; fearing addiction or euphoria.
But times have changed, and now, healthcare systems have revised their end-of-life care
to better address a patient’s life quality rather than simply its length.
This form of pain management is known as palliative care, which is distinguished from curative
care.
In 2015, the Economist released a Quality of Death Index.
They found that wealthy countries have the highest quality of death, and also tend to
subsidize related care.
The Index also ranked countries where doctors had easier access to opiate pain relievers
higher than in countries where their use was stigmatized or limited.
They also found that it was important that public perceptions did not demonize people
for seeking palliative care over curative care.
First on the list was Britain.
This was particularly the result of palliative care being integrated into their National
Health Service, and seeing compassionate support in both the private and public sectors.
Widely available hospice care also contributed to the UK scoring highly.
Similarly wealthy countries, Australia and New Zealand, ranked second and third for many
of the same reasons.
Other countries ranking highly are Asia-Pacific countries, like Taiwan, Singapore, Japan,
and South Korea.
A large elderly population, coupled with increased pain prevention at earlier stages of treatment,
has helped raise their ranking worldwide.
However, countries like China are seeing a huge discrepancy between supply and demand
of palliative care.
Although there are roughly 400 cancer hospitals able to provide necessary care, less than
1% of the population has access to them.
Additionally, there are no national guidelines, opiate availability is very limited, and healthcare
costs are extremely high.
Public subsidies often do not significantly cover treatment costs.
At the same time, China’s elderly population keeps growing and growing, with a relatively
small youth population to take care of them.
Globally, less than 10% of people who need end-of-life care are able to receive it.
Although wealthy nations top the list of countries to die in, advancements in public awareness,
as well as governmental guidelines and healthcare, have seen poorer nations provide better and
better options to standard curative solutions.
Death is a complicated phenomenon, garnering a ton of questions, like “what happens after
I die?” and “what does death smell like?”
To get an answer to the second question, check out this DNews video!
If you’re like other people intrigued by death, TestTube Plus did a whole series about
it.
Check it out, and maybe learn how to beat death altogether.
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