Modern medicine has turned most natural human processes into medical events. Mothers are discouraged from having home births and physicians jealous of their turf have put up obstacles to block the certification of midwifes.
All human beings are mortal but too few people today get to die in their own homes surrounded by loved ones. Instead all too many get shunted off to sterile hospital rooms and denied the opportunity to die with dignity. Indeed unless a no code, do not resuscitate order has been signed the dying will be shocked back to life in a painful undignified attempt to delay the inevitable and extreme measures taken to prolong life where no quality of life can exist. It is now possible to maintain some semblance of life even when the brain is dead and the bodily processes can be continued when the person involved has no awareness and will never regain consciousness. Death has become something to be fought at all costs and not a natural part of living. In a hospital environment a person's loved ones are put in the untenable position of making a decision to let a patient die, to pull the plug. And if the event occurs past visiting hours even wives and husbands may be denied access by inflexible staff.
Death has been so sanitized and made taboo in our modern society that most reach middle age without ever having seen a dead body. It is lost upon most that some animal died to make possible that steak or chicken breast on their plate. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the language used to describe the event. People do not die, they pass away and even individuals dead for centuries are described as having passed. (To hell?)
All human beings are mortal but too few people today get to die in their own homes surrounded by loved ones. Instead all too many get shunted off to sterile hospital rooms and denied the opportunity to die with dignity. Indeed unless a no code, do not resuscitate order has been signed the dying will be shocked back to life in a painful undignified attempt to delay the inevitable and extreme measures taken to prolong life where no quality of life can exist. It is now possible to maintain some semblance of life even when the brain is dead and the bodily processes can be continued when the person involved has no awareness and will never regain consciousness. Death has become something to be fought at all costs and not a natural part of living. In a hospital environment a person's loved ones are put in the untenable position of making a decision to let a patient die, to pull the plug. And if the event occurs past visiting hours even wives and husbands may be denied access by inflexible staff.
Death has been so sanitized and made taboo in our modern society that most reach middle age without ever having seen a dead body. It is lost upon most that some animal died to make possible that steak or chicken breast on their plate. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the language used to describe the event. People do not die, they pass away and even individuals dead for centuries are described as having passed. (To hell?)
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