#34 w Professor Seamus O’ Mahony: Lancet Commission report on the Value of Death

In this episode, we are joined once again by Professor Seamus O’Mahony. Seamus is a doctor and a prize-winning author. He worked for many years in the NHS, returning to his native city of Cork in 2001, where he was a gastroenterologist and clinical professor until February 2020. His first book The Way We Die Now won the British Medical Association’s council chair’s choice award in 2017.

Purchase the book here https://www.amazon.com/Way-We-Die-Now-Medicines/dp/1250112796

His second book Can Medicine be Cured?  was published in 2019, purchase the book here https://www.amazon.com.au/Can-Medicine-Cured-Corruption-Profession-ebook/dp/B07DKKVBL4 and his latest book The Ministry of Bodies was published by Head of Zeus in March 2021.

Purchase the book here https://www.amazon.com/Ministry-Bodies-Death-Modern-Hospital/dp/1838931929

He is a regular contributor to the Dublin Review of Books and the Medical Independent. He has written also for The Observer, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and the Saturday Evening Post. He is a member of the Lancet commission on “The Value of Death” and is visiting professor at the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College London.

In this episode, we discuss his involvement in this Lancet report. The Lancet is the top medical journal in the world with an impact factor of 79. The published Report of Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life. You can read the entire report here (50 pages) for free https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02314-X/fulltext

Here is a short summary video from the Lancet (<7 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRqjkIPMBhw

 

Key points we discuss and useful links:

• The global commission was multidisciplinary in many ways including religious background, education, profession, and geographical location.
• The fear of death has been exacerbated by Covid-19
• The world is increasingly becoming devoid of meaning, we are disconnected, and hyper-scientific.
• Yuval Noah Harari https://www.ynharari.com/
• Cosmic Impiety by Bertrand Russell
• Global imbalance of health and medicine
• Equity, justice, and fairness
• Biogerontology
• The increase between rich and poor and access to health and medicine
• Life expectancy has been reduced in the United States and stagnant in the UK.
• Compression of Morbidity Theory
• Dying in the ICU in India is a status symbol
• Medical care is a cause of bankruptcy
• God is Dead (Nietzsche) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_dead
• Michael Pollan on https://michaelpollan.com/
• Elysium -the movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film)
• Robert McNamara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara
• Ivan Illich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich
• What is biogerontology: Rattan SIS. Biogerontology: research status, challenges and opportunities. Acta Biomed. 2018 Jun 7;89(2):291-301. doi: 10.23750/abm.v89i2.7403. PMID: 29957767; PMCID: PMC6179011.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179011/
• Michael Marmot-The status syndrome https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/status-syndrome-9781408872680/
• Compression of Morbidity Theory https://palliative.stanford.edu/overview-of-palliative-care/compression-of-morbidity-theory/
• A confession by Leo Tolstoy, full free audiobook here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k9Qo4w3JVY
• Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind by Tom Holland
• The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name by Brian C. Muraresku

Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au for all episodes and links Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au