University of Bath - Alone, not lonely

Dying alone may not be as bad as we think, according to research by a University of Bath academic. Allan Kellehear, head of the department of social and policy sciences, challenged popular opinion when he presented his findings at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham on 5 October. He said: "Dying alone is different to dying lonely. We often see stories in the media about people being 'left' to die alone resulting in questions about why this should be allowed to happen. But some choose to die this way. For some, dying alone is dignified and dying surrounded by machines is not."