This article examines the views of persons living with AIDS about how they want to die and how they are planning for their deaths. Participants for the study were purposefully drawn from an HIV clinic in an urban town in Ghana. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 persons living with AIDS. Three preferences of death were identified by the participants. These include the desire for a quick death, death at home, and death without emaciating. Planning for death involved attending church and taking care of children. Inherent in the responses of the participants is the concern for cost of care, dwindling network of family carers, and stigmatization and shame. The article concludes that the government needs to provide support for home-based care, establish a pension for AIDS patients, support families to pay for the funeral expenses of their relatives, and scale up effort to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma.
AboderinI. (2004) Decline in material family support for older people in urban Ghana, Africa: Understanding processes and pauses of change. Journal of Gerontology59(3): 128–137.
2.
AkechiT.MiyashitaM.MoritaT.OkuyamaT.SakamotoM.SagawaR.UchitomiY. (2012) Good death in elderly adults with cancer in Japan based on perspectives of the general population. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society60(2): 271–276.
3.
AnarfiJ. (1995) The condition and care of AIDS victims in Ghana: AIDS sufferers and their relations. Health Transition Review5: 253–263.
4.
AntwiP.AtobrahD. (2009) Stigma in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS and cancer in Accra. In: OppongC.AntwiP.WaernessK. (eds) Care of the seriously sick and dying: Perspectives from Ghana, University of Bergen, Norway: Unifob Global, pp. 114–149.
5.
Asiedu, G. (2010). “Once it’s your sister, they think it runs in the family”: The impact of HIV/AIDS related stigma in Ghana (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.
6.
BlochM.ParryJ. (1982) Death and regeneration of life, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
7.
CountsD. A.CountsD. (2004) The good, the bad, and the unresolved death in Kaliai. Social Science and Medicine58(5): 887–897.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. L. (1965) Awareness of dying, Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing.
10.
GoffmanE. (1963) Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
11.
HughesT.SchumacherM.Jacobs-LawsonJ.ArnoldS. (2008) Confronting death: Perceptions of good death in adults with lung cancer. American Hospice and Palliative Medicine25(1): 39–44.
12.
KikuleE. (2003) A good death in Uganda: Survey of needs for palliative care for terminally ill people in urban areas. British Medical Journal327(408): 192–194.
13.
LyonF. (2003) Trader associations and urban food systems in Ghana: Institutionalist approaches to understanding urban collective action. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research27(1): 11–23.
14.
MarshallV. (1975) Socialization for impending death in a retirement village. American Journal of Sociology80(5): 1124–1144.
15.
MillJ. (2003) Shrouded in secrecy: Breaking news of HIV infection to Ghanaian women. Journal of Transnational Nursing14(1): 6–16.
16.
Nicolai, V. (2007). Last respects: Exploring the place of funerals in a rural South African community (master’s thesis). Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
17.
NukunyaG. K. (2003) Tradition and change: An introduction to sociology, Accra, Ghana: Ghana Universities Press.
18.
NybladeL.PandeR.MathurS.MacQuarrieK.KiddR.BanteyergaH.BondV. (2003) Disentangling HIV and AIDS stigma in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, Washington, DC: ICRW.
19.
NziokaC. (2000) The social meaning of death from HIV/AIDS: An African interpretive view. Cultural, Health and Sexuality2(1): 1–14.
20.
Ohemeng, F. N. A. (2012). The social construction of AIDS-related deaths in the New Juaben Traditional Area (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Ghana, Accra, Africa.
21.
PiersonC. M.CurtisJ. R.PatrickD. L. (2002) A good death: A qualitative study of patients with advanced AIDS. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV14(5): 587–598.
22.
SealeC.Van der GeestS. (2004) Good death and bad death: Introduction. Social Science and Medicine58(5): 883–885.
23.
SelwynP. A.ArnoldR. (1998) From fate to tragedy: The changing meaning of life, death and AIDS. Annals of Internal Medicine129(11): 899–902.
24.
ShiltsR. (1987) And the band played on: Politics, people and the AIDS epidemic, New York, NY: St Martins’ Press.
25.
SiegelK.LekasH.-M. (2002) AIDS as a chronic illness: Psychosocial implications. AIDS16(Suppl. 4): S69–S76.
26.
UlasiC.PrekoP.BaidooJ.BayardB.EhiriJ.JollyC.JollyP. (2009) HIV/AIDS related stigma in Kumasi-Ghana. Health and Place15(1): 255.
27.
Van der GeestS. (2000) Funerals for the living: Conversations with elderly people in Ghana. African Studies Review43(3): 103–129.
28.
Van der GeestS. (2002a) ‘I want to go!’: How older people in Ghana look forward to death. Ageing and Society22: 7–28.
29.
Van der GeestS. (2002b) The toilet: Dignity, privacy and care of elderly people in Kwahu, Ghana. In: MakoniS.StroekenK. (eds) Ageing in Africa: Sociolinguistic and anthropological approaches, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, pp. 227–243.
30.
Van der GeestS. (2004) Dying peacefully: Considering good death and bad death in Kwahu-Tafo, Ghana. Social Science and Medicine58(5): 899–911.
