Death and Dying

It has been said that the two things a person can never look directly at are the sun and one’s own death. Despite an inability to look directly at death, death has been an integral part of religions, myths, and sciences. Dying is the one certain thing that all human beings will experience. Although cognitively people know that everyone will someday die, people are very hesitant to think of their own deaths; death is one of people’s greatest fears. Prior to the 20th century, death was not a mystery in the average household in the United States. Most people lived on farms, where death was a part of life. Death and the bereavement processes, however, have been standardized by laws and regulations and the societal ...