Living With Death: The Meaning Of Acceptance

Abstract

The emerging debate about what is a "good death" and whether individuals have a responsibility to die well usually calls attention to the evils attendant upon either participating or not in active forms of killing. In this article the author argues that we should avoid another kind of evil, that of an excessive reliance on medical concepts and values to define the dying process and the resultant image of death as the enemy. The author discusses a possible foundation for an obligation to accept death and develops related constructs: readiness to die, knowing when it is time to die, and the will to die. The last section argues for a shift from a commitment to prolonging life to an affirmation of dying, a more balanced view that values confronting the experience of and making choices in the face of finitude and death.