Overview

A comprehensive, thought-provoking exploration of death and a rumination on how our own mortality affects how we live our lives. Timor Mortis – Latin for ‘fear of death’ – contemplates the fragility of life, exploring the myriad ways in which we confront our mortality, whether through stoicism, suffering, dignity, humour or grief. Public health doctor Richard Coker delves into the historical, biological, and psychological underpinnings of these experiences, as well as the moral complexities of human nature. He examines how our understanding of death has evolved, particularly through the lens of both his personal clinical and public health expertise. At a time when the role of medicine in end-of-life care is receiving increasing attention across public, policy and political spheres, Richard reflects on how the medical profession navigates, and sometimes fails to negotiate, this delicate process. Through unsettling examples, such as the humour that may be found in even the most unusual settings such as in giving an AIDS diagnosis to a young man, a professional failure in communication over resuscitation wishes, the desperation of a man too breathless to speak and the expectation to coordinate a death to fit a royal schedule, Timor Mortis invites readers to reflect on ageing, death and our relationship with a journey we will all take. Beyond addressing the philosophical and practical facets of mortality, Timor Mortis uniquely integrates a critical examination of contemporary societal phenomena that shape our relationship with death. The book also offers a compelling analysis of the political and economic forces at play in the business of death. By venturing into these rarely discussed intersections of commerce, policy and personal mortality, Coker provides a fresh and urgent perspective on the challenges of achieving a ‘good death’ and what this looks like in the modern era.

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9781917923699

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Author Information

Richard Coker is an emeritus professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is the author of From Chaos to Coercion: Detention and the Control of Tuberculosis (St Martin’s Press, 2000), multiple chapters in edited books, around 300 research papers and his invited writing has also appeared in the Guardian. A doctor, he worked with HIV/AIDS patients in the early years of the pandemic as a consultant at St Mary’s Hospital, London, and on tuberculosis and HIV control in London and New York City. He later led research on tuberculosis, HIV and other communicable diseases in the former Soviet Union for seven years, and Southeast Asia for twenty years. He has been interviewed by BBC News, CNN, BBC World Service, BBC’s Today, Capital Radio, Dispatches, GLR, Newsroom South East, BBC’s Horizon, Channel 4 News; and his work has featured in more than seventy international publications including Le Figaro, the Straits Times, the Guardian, the Independent and New Scientist.

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