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 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