What David Bowie can teach us about end-of-life conversations

The death of artist David Bowie earlier this month touched the hearts of many who were influenced by his music, stagecraft and ideas — including physician Mark Taubert from the U.K.

Dr. Taubert dedicated a recent BMJ blog to Mr. Bowie, thanking him for his ChangesOneBowie album, his Berlin days, many memories and his final message. As a palliative care physician, Dr. Taubert thanked Mr. Bowie for providing a narrative to talk to patients more openly about death, a conversation many physicians struggle to have.

He thanked Mr. Bowie for his album Blackstar, released two days before his death Jan. 10, which Dr. Taubert said had a profound effect on him and many of his colleagues. Mr. Bowie created his final album knowing he was terminally ill.

"I have often heard how meticulous you were in your life. For me, the fact that your gentle death at home coincided so closely with the release of your album, with its good-bye message, in my mind is unlikely to be coincidence. All of this was carefully planned, to become a work of death art," Dr. Taubert wrote. Specifically, he mentioned the song "Lazarus," for the thought-provoking video in which Bowie croons, "Look up here, I'm in heaven."

Dr. Taubert also thanks Mr. Bowie for his death at home, symptom control needs and advance care planning. Both Mr. Bowie's life and death helped Dr. Taubert discuss end-of-life planning with a patient who had advanced cancer and about a year left to live.

"She talked about you and loved your music, but for some reason was not impressed by your Ziggy Stardust outfit (she was not sure whether you were a boy or a girl)," Dr. Taubert wrote. "She too, had memories of places and events for which you provided an idiosyncratic soundtrack. And then we talked about a good death, the dying moments and what these typically look like. And we talked about palliative care and how it can help."

Dr. Taubert said Mr. Bowie inspired a conversation about how she envisioned her final moments, and he wrote to Mr. Bowie, "You gave her a way of expressing this most personal longing to me, a relative stranger."

 

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