Convents Provide Beneficial End-of-Life Surroundings

A recent NY Times article spotlights the Mother House of the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent.  A Mother House is a retirement and nursing community for Roman Catholic sisters.

A geriatrician who provides primary care to many of the sisters in the house says that the sisters have better deaths than any others he has seen, especially when compared to the tortured, impersonal, and expensive deaths that take place in hospitals.

The peaceful deaths are attributable the close relationships within the house, a philosophy about dying with reverence, an absence of anxiety and fear over death, healthier lifestyles, advance decision making about end of life treatment, & an avoidance of extreme life saving techniques.

See Jane Gross, Sisters Face Death with Dignity and Reverence, NY Times, July 8, 2009.