Talk:Last offices

Proposed merge with Bathing the dead
Bathing the dead is a subset of the Last offices, but it's basically the same process. It would make more sense to have all of the information on the same page, including the medical/hospital perspectives and the religious/cultural perspectives together. We would need to keep redirects from the alternative names as usual. WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:46, 4 October 2014 (UTC)


 * It's really not the same thing: one is a functional process, usually performed by a professional, the other is a religious ritual, performed by the family or community. If the two are to be combined, it will require a major refactoring of this article. -- The Anome (talk) 12:47, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that distinction is really true. There's no obvious "functional" purpose to closing the eyes, shaving the face, or washing the body.  Bathing the dead says that it is only sometimes a religious ritual.  Laying out a body in Western cultures has not been a religious function for centuries, but it sometimes went under the name of "bathing the dead" or "washing the dead" too.  This book (page 612) says that the function became medicalized only around WWII, when people started living longer and dying in hospitals and having their bodies taken to funeral homes, instead of mostly dying at home and being buried from homes.   WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:38, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support: there's not really enough material for two articles. Although I have to say as an RN for 15 years now, I've never really heard the term "last offices" in common use. I definitely wouldn't have searched for it. Perhaps an anachronism? Usually we continue to refer to a patient by name, we talk about 'giving them a wash', etc. I have no idea what else you would call it though! Basie (talk) 08:07, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 16:53, 21 July 2017 (UTC)