Abstract
This paper, based upon interviews with doctors engaged in terminal care, focuses on doctor-patient dialogues concerning death and those aimed at helping the patient's acceptance of death, from a care viewpoint. Two patterns for doctors discussing death with patients at clinical sites were found. Three steps in the development of doctor-patient discussion concerning death are shown: "avoidance," "helping patients express themselves," and "doctor-patient dialogue." During end-of-life care, "doctor-patient dialogues" are important. Doctors and patients both grow through such dialogues which are not based on the doctor-patient relationship, but on more personal in nature. They are, in short, conversation between two mortal beings with a limited life. Through doctor-patient dialogues, patients accept their own death and doctors learn from patients the importance of more deeply examining their own views of life and death.
