Nineteenth-century doctors and care of the dying

Abstract

The nineteenth century saw major demographic and social changes that began to transform how people died. As lives lengthened, so the manner of their ending was transformed. A preoccupation with what lay beyond death began to be replaced by a concern about the manner of dying. New modes of pain relief raised questions about whether if suffering could be relieved, might it also be avoided by hastening death? During the century, the meaning of ‘euthanasia’ was therefore transformed—from the medically supported ‘easeful death’, to the deliberate ending of life by the physician. This chapter explores the changing landscape of Victorian dying and considers in particular the foundational work of William Munk, whose book on ‘easeful death’ published in 1887 seems to lay the foundations for the modern speciality of palliative medicine.