ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the present-day hospice movement, was asked which was more important in the care of the dying, the spiritual or the medical, and she replied that the two are in fact inextricably mingled. A good death in Hinduism is characterized by the dying person being able to turn her attention away from the finite and fix her heart and mind on God in order to attain a peaceful exit from the vehicle that is the physical body. A key element of a good death in Buddhism involves having a clear and virtuous mind at the time of death. In the Islamic tradition, the most important daily ritual in life involves offering prayers five times a day at designated times. In Judaism, ideas about the end of life are framed by the laws of the Torah, the associated commentary contained in the Talmud, and the ongoing deliberations of rabbinic courts.
