The Inevitable Hour: A History of Caring for Dying Patients in America

237 Pages·2013·2.28 MB·English

by  Emily K. Abel

The Inevitable Hour
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The Inevitable Hour
A History of Caring for Dying Patients in America
EMILY K. ABEL
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2013
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Abel, Emily K.
The inevitable hour : a history of caring for dying patients in America / Emily K. Abel.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 1- 4214- 0919- 1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 1- 4214- 0919- 4
(hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 1- 4214- 0920- 7 (electronic) —
ISBN 1- 4214- 0920- 8 (electronic)
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Terminal Care— history—United States. 2. Terminally Ill—
history—United States. 3. History, 19th Century— United States. 4. History,
20th Century— United States. 5. Hospice Care— history—United States. WB 310]
616.02'9—dc23 2012035112
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contents
Ac know ledg ments vii
Introduction 1
1 The Good Death at Home 8
2 Medical Professionals (Sometimes) Step In 22
3 Cultivating Detachment, Sidetracking Care 36
4 Institutionalizing the Incurable 57
5 “All Our Dread and Apprehension” 88
6 “Nothing More to Do” 103
7 A Place to Die 118
8 The Sacred and the Spiritual 136
Conclusion 166
Notes 175
Index 219
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ac know ledg ments
Many people helped me write this book. My history writing group— Carla Bittel,
Janet Farrell Brodie, Sharla Fett, Devra Weber, and Alice Wexler—r ead draft after
draft, making generous yet sharp comments. Richard Abel, Lara Freidenfelds,
Sandra Harding, Joanne Leslie, and Steven P. Wallace read individual chapters
and provided extremely helpful recommendations. Jacqueline H. Wolf and Janet
Golden helped me locate relevant archives.
I also appreciate the comments of audiences at the Department of the History
of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Barbara Bates Center
for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School
of Nursing, and the annual conference of the American Association for the His-
tory of Medicine. I made a second trip to the Barbara Bates Center to confer with
Julie Fairman and Joan Lynaugh, receiving invaluable suggestions.
Numerous archivists guided me to relevant sources, especially Steven E. Novak,
Columbia University Health Sciences Library, Archives and Special Collections;
Russell A. Johnson, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA; and Arlene
Shaner, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Library, New York Academy of Medicine.
I received permissions from the State Archives Division, Kansas Historical So-
ciety, to quote from the Martha Farnsworth Collection; the Center for Oral and
Public History, California State University, Fullerton, to quote from oral history
interviews; the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne Archives, to quote from the Rose
Hawthorne Lathrop Papers; the Manuscript Department, Library, New York His-
torical Society to quote from the John Moff at Howe Diary and the Sigmund and
Margaret Nestor Papers; Columbia University Augustus C. Long Health Sciences
Library, Archives and Special Collections, to quote from the Presbyterian Hospi-
tal Patient Rec ords, Elizabeth R. Pritchard, “History of Social Ser vice of Presbyte-
rian Hospital,” and Columbia University, Offi ce of the V.P. for Health Sciences,
Central Rec ords; the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, to quote from the
viii Acknowledgments
Dorothy Smith Dushkin Papers and the Thomas Thompson Trust Rec ords; the
Mount Sinai School of Nursing Alumnae Newsletter to quote from the newsletter;
Special Collections Research Library, University of Chicago Library, to quote
from the John Gunther Papers; the Department of Special Collections and Univer-
sity Archives, Stanford University, to quote from the Hawthorne Family Papers; the
Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliff e Institute, Har-
vard University, to quote from the Frances Fineman Gunther Papers; the Memorial
Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, New York, to quote from a Memorial Sloan-
Kettering publication at the Rocke fel ler Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow; and Mari-
anne P. Brown, Santa Monica, to quote from the Parker Family Letters.
Portions of chapter 3 appeared in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine (2011):
29– 56. It was adapted and reprinted with permission by the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press.
Jacqueline Wehmueller, Executive Editor of the Johns Hopkins University Press,
encouraged this project from the beginning and provided both trenchant and
supportive comments as it progressed. Carolyn I. Moser’s meticulous copyediting
also improved the manuscript.
My children and grandchildren have kept me connected to happier events than
those chronicled here. My husband, Rick, has shared my delight in their lives as
well as so much more.
The Inevitable Hour