PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - M Rowe TI - Mortality and medicine: forms of silence and of speech AID - 10.1136/mh.29.2.72 DP - 2003 Dec 01 TA - Medical Humanities PG - 72--76 VI - 29 IP - 2 4099 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/29/2/72.short 4100 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/29/2/72.full SO - J Med Humanit2003 Dec 01; 29 AB - Silence can be harmful to patients, their loved ones, and doctors within the contexts of illness and bereavement. I draw from my experience with my son’s illness and death to discuss five forms of silence—the silence around the experience of critical illness; the silence between life and death; the silence of doctors; the silence of the dead, and the silence of the ill—and of speech that may emerge in response to these silences.