英国获评死亡质量最高国家

　　The Chinese adage has it that one should be born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou and die in Liuzhou. Actually, suggests a new study: London may be the place to die。

　　China is near the bottom of a 40-country "Quality of Death" index ranking nations by the care provided to those late in life, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Lien Foundation. At the top of the index is the United Kingdom, followed by Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Those nations score well on indicators such as public awareness, training availability, access to painkillers and the heavily weighted category of doctor-patient transparency。

　　Globally, average ages will continue rising, particularly in rich countries. But filling out the bottom ranks of the Quality of Death index were the populous, fast-growing BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, along with Uganda and Mexico. "Death and dying are stigmatized in some cultures to the point where they are taboo - as in Chinese culture."

　　With doctor-patient transparency contributing 40 percent of the overall index score, it isn't hard to see why China would do poorly. In China, it isn't uncommon for doctors, often in cahoots with families, to lie in the face of a terminal illness to a patient about his chances, out of fear the truth would be too upsetting, to avoid his calls to continue with costly treatments and even to avoid association with spirits of the afterlife。

　　China has virtually no discussion of end-of-life care, such as hospice, according to the study. "Most family members of the patients can’t fully understand it," says Ma Ke, director of the Third People's Hospital of Kunming Hospice Department, in the study. (The report says around 30 hospitals in China offer hospice care。)

　　But in addition to traditions about death, China's one-child policy may be worsening things for the roughly 9.38 million Chinese who die each year, or just over 0.7 percent of the population. (2008 figures) "The ratio of working people to dependents is shrinking rapidly, particularly in China, where the one-child policy will leave parents with fewer offspring to care for them in old age," the report says。