Chapter Introduction

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CHAPTER OUTLINE

Death and Hope

Cultures, Epochs, and Death

Understanding Death Throughout the Life Span

Near-Death Experiences

Choices in Dying

A Good Death

Better Ways to Die

Ethical Issues

OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES: The “Right to Die”?

Affirmation of Life

Grief

Mourning

Diversity of Reactions

A VIEW FROM SCIENCE: Resilience After a Death

Practical Applications

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EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Death and Dying

WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

  • How can death be a source of hope, not despair?

  • What is the difference between a good death and a bad one?

  • How does mourning help with grief?

Video: An Overview of Death and Dying

Anearby hospital (St. Vincent’s) closed two years ago, the victim of budget cuts. Six other hospitals have been shuttered recently in New York City for the same reason. St. Vincent’s closure struck my local community hard—emotions are still hot. At a rally at the hospital site, the editor of a local newspaper slapped our state senator, who responded with surprise and compassion.

Why did that slap happen? The editor said that his wife died a few days earlier in a Bronx hospital, and if St. Vincent’s were still open, “I could have walked two blocks and spent time with her through the last hours of her life” (Taylor, 2013, p. A16). Of course, that is no excuse for violence, but mourners want to blame someone—a hospital, a senator, a doctor, the dying person. Men tend to get rageful, women depressed (Corr & Corr, 2013a). People say, “It didn’t have to happen,” even though they know that death, whether two blocks or a long subway ride away, is part of life.

That editor is not the only irrational one. When Joan Didion’s husband died, she experienced a “year of magical thinking,” including keeping his shoes in the closet because he would need them if he came back (Didion, 2005). Mourners are not always logical.

This chapter acknowledges those emotions and helps us understand dying, death, grief, and bereavement. We can expect powerful feelings to surface; hopefully they can be directed toward help for the living. Tears, yes; slaps, no. There is hope in death, choices in dying, and affirmation in mourning, as the three sections of this chapter describe.