Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Research Open Access Life at the end of life: beliefs about individual life after death and "good death" models - a qualitative study Franco Toscani*1, Claudia Borreani2, Paolo Boeri2 and Guido Miccinesi3 Address: 1Lino Maestroni Institute for Research in Palliative Medicine, Via Palestro 1, 26100 Cremona, Italy, 2Psychology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy and 3Epidemiology Unit, Centre for Study and Prevention of Cancer, Florence, Italy Email: Franco Toscani* - ; Claudia Borreani - ; Paolo Boeri - boeri@; Guido Miccinesi - * Corresponding author Published: 07 November 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:65 This. | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Research Open Access Life at the end of life beliefs about individual life after death and good death models - a qualitative study Franco Toscani 1 Claudia Borreani2 Paolo Boeri2 and Guido Miccinesi3 Address 1Lino Maestroni Institute for Research in Palliative Medicine Via Palestro 1 26100 Cremona Italy 2Psychology Unit National Cancer Institute Milan Italy and 3Epidemiology Unit Centre for Study and Prevention of Cancer Florence Italy Email Franco Toscani - Claudia Borreani - Paolo Boeri - boeri@ Guido Miccinesi - Corresponding author Published 07 November 2003 Received 14 July 2003 Accepted 07 November 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003 1 65 r This article is available from http content 1 1 65 2003 Toscani et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose provided this notice is preserved along with the article s original URL. Abstract Background Different ideas of good death may influence the effectiveness of end-of-life care in patients with different ethos. This study aimed to identify the influence of believing in individual life after death on good death models. Methods Semi structured-interview to 8 persons 4 believers and 4 non-believers in individual life after death from the general Italian population. Analysis of the transcribed text according to the method suggested by Mc Cracken. Results The analysis has shown a diverse and coherent conceptualization of death according to whether the subjects believe or not in individual life after death. Believers for whom death marks the passage to a new dimension prefer to be unaware of dying while non-believers for whom death is the end of the individual prefer to be conscious until the very end of life. However some important aspects .
