On The Fear Of Death

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The title "On The Fear Of Death," caught my eye as I was skimming the text for a story. After some thought, I concluded that the word "death" means more to me than most of my peers. I grew up as the daughter of a hard working man, one with an uncommon occupation. My father is a mortician. "On The Fear Of Death" intrigued me because many adopt such a negative view of death. Kubler-Ross takes the concept of death and embraces it, perhaps allowing her to ease her own fear of mortality. She eloquently expresses her views, emotions, and feelings regarding death and dying. Humans cannot conceive peaceful death, instead most imagine themselves suffering before they pass. Kubler-Ross nicely expresses that "death in its self is associated with a bad act, a frightening happening, something that in its self calls for retribution and punishment." Why do most humans fear death as being horrible and painful?

Kubler-Ross passionately expresses her empathetic thoughts regarding loneliness and seclusion as related to death. She writes, "our presumed patient has now reached the emergency room. He will be surrounded by nurses, orderlies, interns, residents, and lab technicians, he slowly but surely is beginning to be treated like a thing." Here she certainly reefers to the impersonality demonstrated by friends, family, and caretakers alike during an ailing patient’s last minutes. The ...

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