Cultural Scripts of Dieing & Death (The Case Study of Cancer Patients of Iman Khomeini Hospital, Tehran)

Death is a problem that modernity cannot solve it by internal referential knowledge. Death and dying should do out of the public sphere because they are important taboos. More people in modern society currently die at hospitals, hospice, and palliative care, and experience old age and dying in different way of past, because; first, their life spans increase. Second, they reach to old age. Third, infectious conditions shift to degenerative conditions as causes of death. While dying place and time are change, it is quietly natural that dying patterns to transform too. Clive Seale identifies four "cultural scripts ", or ways (patterns) to die well: modern medicine, revivalism, an anti revivalism scripts and a religious script. Cultural scripts are guiding rules for individuals. People in Iran have belief to religion strongly. Thus, the aim of this article is answering to this question that how cancer patients in a religious society and in hospital- a modern institution- can make meaningful process of dying themselves. In this research had used grounded theory methodology. Gathering data techniques were observation and deep interview (with patients, physicians, nurses and social workers) at hospitals. Totally, we do thirty-two deep interviews. We observed that having '' spirit '' or moral support is important for make meaningful dying processes. Failure of hospital facility, lack of medical ethics in physicians and speaking to patients, and destructing cancer metaphors in Iran, causes ''spirit drop''. Drop of spirit itself is cause that patients discontinue ''struggling'' to cancer. Also other result indicate that criteria for recognizing ''deed'' and meaning of '' miracle'' have change in Iran since two recent decade . Those rise due to social changes and equipment technologic progression of medicine. ''Dead'' is who his/her brain becomes die, namely death of brain equal '' departing soul of body'' and '' death of man''. Thus, not only decease of body equal with end of exists, but also '' death of brain'' (center of rationality) means'' death of man''. This kind of death determines and declares by physician not God, in the other hand once, that his/her brain die, else patients family and her/his self do not anticipated performing miracle.