The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death:
bringing death back into life

On today’s episode of What About Death!?, Tsultrim speaks with Dr Libby Sallnow, a palliative care consultant and researcher from London in the UK. Dr Sallnow has been a leader in developing social and public health approaches to death, dying and loss for over two decades and she was recently the first author of the Lancet Commission “The Value of Death: Bringing Death Back into Life.” This fascinating commission explores how we understand death in the 21st Century and considers the implications of the various systems that determine how we die. Dr. Sallnow offers insights into how we can develop a “realistic utopia” in relation to dying, death and grief that is hopeful, intentional and actually values dying and death.

What to do about dying? – with Richard Smith and Libby Sallnow. We don’t like to think about death. To many, death and dying have no value and are relegated to the margins of our lives.

But about half a million of us in Britain die each year, mostly in our 80s, with half of us dying in our usual place of residence – in our own bed.

With palliative care stretched and family and friends often left unsupported, what could be an enriching and meaningful phase of life can become over-medicalised, transactional and feared.

Bringing death back into life. Experts are calling for a radical change in our approach to death and dying; why pregnant women should get the Covid vaccine; hidden lung damage in long Covid.

Welcome to the monthly podcast series from UCL Health of the Public presented by Doctor, writer and TV presenter Xand Van Tulleken and community health psychologist, UCL lecturer and self-proclaimed hippie Rochelle Burgess.

We’re calling this podcast Public Health Disrupted because that’s exactly what we want to do. We are going to be breaking down disciplinary, sectoral and geographic boundaries to really understand the diverse and complex issues impacting our health.

This week’s Survival of the Kindest podcast is a joint interview between Professor Allan Kellehear, Dr Libby Sallnow, Dr Richard Smith and myself. Richard was editor of the British Medical Journal for 25 years. Libby and Richard are lead authors in the Lancet Commission On The Value Of Death.

Learn about the important recent report from the Lancet Commission in the UK on the value of death and what each of us needs to do to help bring death back into life.

The story of dying in the 21st century is the story of paradox. Many people are overtreated in hospitals with families and communities relegated to the margins, at considerable cost. COVID-19 has meant people have died the ultimate medicalised deaths, often alone but for masked staff in hospitals and intensive care units, unable to communicate fully with family. But in other settings, including in some lower income countries, many people remain undertreated, dying of preventable conditions and without access to basic pain relief.