A Good Death

The Journey of Death

A Good Death What do you do when you're told you're going to die? In this heart-rending documentary four Australians face this very question, as they search for that elusive good death.
"I mean we talk about the journey of life...well, what about the journey of death?" asks one terminally ill patient. Unfortunately, while so often this journey begins with defiance, the sad reality is that modern death is becoming increasingly drawn out and long suffering often overwhelms people.

Palliative care centres like Sacred Heart aim to make this journey easier and provide relief from the pain that usually comes with being terminally ill. But the battle is not against pain alone. In modern society people are reluctant to accept death as a part of life. "We want to look after them. We want to cure them ... we've set up a situation where it's difficult to die peacefully."

Yet palliative care remains under-funded - it appears helping people die a 'good death' is a service society doesn't recognise.
FULL SYNOPSIS

The Producers


Deborah Masters has been a director/producer at ABC Australia since October 1998. One of her first roles at ABC was producing the epic series “100 Years – The Australian Story.” ‘A Good Death’ is her most recent production. Matthew Carney joined Four Corners at the beginning of 2005 after working at the ABC and SBS for the past 15 years as both a reporter and producer. For the past eight years Matthew has specialised in "one man band" filmmaking or video journalism, travelling alone to some of the most difficult and dangerous locations on earth. n his first year at Four Corners Matthew was a Walkley Award finalist in international journalism and was highly commended for his film "Out of Mind".

Making The Film


It’s an unfortunate statistic that seven out of ten Australians die what might be called an “expected death”. Now a small group of doctors and nurses are warning that our obsession with curing illness is leaving patients unprepared for death. In ‘A Good Death’, Reporter Deborah Masters follows four brave Australians as they come to the end of their lives, and the people determined to give them a good death.

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