ABSTRACT
Death is largely a taboo subject within society, many people being reluctant to discuss it. Manley (1986) vividly contrasts differing social attitudes by placing a fifteenth-century deathbed scene of a dying person surrounded by his family and priests, with a photograph of a dead patient in ICU surrounded by modern technology but without a living person in view. Many researchers are understandably cautious about approaching bereaved families in case they increase or revive their distress. Research-based evidence is therefore limited both in quantity and sample sizes, making findings more than usually tentative.
