On The Fear Of Dying Summary

Modern medicine has been fighting death and whether that is good or bad remains unknown. In the essay “On The Fear Of Dying” by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross she dissects modern medicines effects on living and examines the mental and emotional toll is has taken on people. In the essay she talks about how despite modern medicine’s benefits it has allowed us to become more wary of acknowledging death and accepting it. The author explains that despite the advantages of modern medicine it has lead to more emotional and mental problems regarding death, destroyed our ability to cope with death, and made dying an impersonal and cold experience. While the author takes a rather grim outlook on modern medicine, I agree with her; modern medicine has increased

the average lifespan but has not changed the fearful ways we view death, has destroyed how we cope with death and dying, and has made dying an unpleasant experience.
Although the author and I agree that the life expectancy has greatly increased in the past 1000 years and medicine has changed, our old ways of viewing death have not. In the essay the author discusses how death is perceived in which she concludes “therefore death in itself is associated with a bad act, a frightening happening, something that in itself calls for retribution and punishment.”(220) Death is never depicted positively in any circumstance. There is never any peace with just death alone there is always something to either blame or make it seem better. Many times a disease is criminalized because death still scares us and it is not easily accepted despite us knowing that it must happen. The funeral I attended criminalized the disease that had taken the person’s life. To find peace my family had to find something to blame, anything that could allow them to understand why the death had occurred. No matter how someone dies there will always be something bad surrounding their death because we do not fathom it as something that is supposed to happen, even though we know it does. She also describes different traditions of coping with death and the meaning behind them. This further explains her point that our perception of death has not changed with modern medicine, but has continued to remain the same. For example she says “ The tradition of the tombstone may originate in this wish to keep the bad spirits deep down in the ground, and the pebbles that many mourners put on the grave are left-over symbols of the same wish.”(222) So while modern medicine has changed, the fear of death still persists no matter how much we try to ignore it remains just as scary.
The author accurately describes the changes modern medicine has made on living which has altered the way we cope with death.

The author recalled a memory from her childhood of the death of a farmer who had fallen from a tree. She described his wishes to die at home and how he quietly arranged his affairs. Then explained how even though she and her siblings were young they were not excluded from helping to prepare his affairs and grieving his passing. She talked about how there was no embalming or covering up his death as we do now. The author is conveying that in the past we allowed people to go about death naturally and allowed children the comfort of grieving with a group and letting them realistically see and understand what happens. The author then contrasts her experiences when she was young to how death is treated today by arguing “ This is great contrast to a society in which death is viewed as taboo, discussion of it is regarded as morbid, and the children are excluded with the presumption and pretext that it would be ‘too much’ for them.”(223) This shows that Kübler-Ross feels that despite the advancements made in medicine how we cope with death is regressed and gone from something natural that happens to something that is seen as a scary thing to be protected from. I can attest to the taboo form of death she describes because from a young age death has been presented to me as something that would rarely happen. When death was finally explained to me it was as someone going to sleep forever. It was only later on when I attended my first funeral that I would question this. The way death is explained to children now does not allow them to learn to cope and grieve as they should. Death is indeed devastating and sad but we must learn to understand it and let go or we will always live in fear. The author and I both share the opinion that death needs to be allowed to be understood completely to fully allow us to cope. When we accept death as it is people

will have a better emotional and mental health because the anxiety of death will no longer haunt them. The way death is coped with in the present has regressed while medicine has advanced concluding that maybe the side effects of these advancements are taking a toll on the rewards.
I would not consider death to be pleasant nor does the author but we believe there is a certain dignity in accepting the fate of life and allowing yourself to pass on. Modern medicine has once again corrupted this once dignified but tragic thing. Modern medicine has created this belief that you do not have to die if you just keep taking medicine after medicine and undergoing procedure after procedure. In the essay Kubler-Ross talks about how dying has become lonely and impersonal. She provides us again with the contrasting story of the famer who died in the comfort of his home rather than the loud noise and poking and prodding of a hospital. She says “I am putting it exaggeratedly in contrast to the sick man who is left at home- not to say that lives should not be saved if they can be saved by a hospitalization but to keep the focus on the patient’s experience, his needs and his reactions.”(224) The author is saying we can not take away a person’s right to pass on in peace if everything has been done to save them. We can not make them want to live a few extra months if they know the ultimate outcome since it is their decision. I agree with this because so many times as people we want to be selfish and keep that person here for as long as possible even if they are suffering, which is selfish. To add the inconvenience modern medicine has given death Kübler-Ross says “One of the most important facts of dying nowadays is more gruesome in many ways, namely, more lonely, mechanical, and dehumanized; at times it is even difficult to determine technically when the time of death has occurred.”(223) This quote shows that even though modern medicine works wonders it has also made death more painful because these new methods have side effects and consequences for an outcome that may not even keep the person alive just their body. Modern medicine is fulfilling the physical aspect of staying alive but at a great cost to the patient, and in the end it could even just be all for nothing.
Modern medicine is a great thing, but it has not abetted our fears of dying, made coping much harder than it used to be, and even made death even more painful and confusing. While modern medicine can save lives it has also stripped sick patients of their right to pass peacefully and given false hope to the family members of others by keeping the body alive while the mind is gone. The fear of dying today has escalated because of the hopes modern medicine seems to offer and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross shares these opinions in her essay “On The Fear Of Death”.