¶ … death by Sherwin Nuland and Socrates. It has 4 sources.
One of the most mystifying phenomenons that keep most of us wondering is death. For the ordinary individual death is not only a topic that they have no clue about but also that they will never be able to satisfy their curiosity unless they experience it themselves. For medical professionals like Sherwin B. Nuland death is something that they see day in day out but never actually could explain unless they get into the technicality of it. Thus, in essence no one from the time of ancient civilization to the modern technological age could really explain the exact nature of death. They can only in fact attempt to explain the nature, cause and effects of death. There are several factors attached to the reason why death cannot actually be explained but only experienced.
Purpose Statement
In the following sections, the researcher attempts to explain how Sherwin Nuland's view of death with dignity does not clearly explains the causes and consequential painful experience of death as compared to the views held by Socrates.
Discussion
Nuland's World View
Modern day medical professionals treat the issue of death and dying as a natural process. Doctors can best explain the process of death as the stoppage of the function of the heart and the brain. Furthermore, they attribute the pain and agony of death to the disease that causes death. For these doctors death is the eventual consequence of the deteriorating condition of diseases like AIDS, Alzheimer, cancer and heart attacks etc. By going into the technical side they often negate the mythological aspect of the issue of death. They rule out the emotional factor that is attached with it and thereby eliminate the spiritual healing that is required in coming to terms with death. Thus, it can be said that death cannot be explained simply by recounting the technical aspect neither can it be explained through the mythological understanding that we derive from our ancestors. These two diversified views often confuse people as to what best explain the process of death and how best to cope with it.
To understand, the researcher is of the opinion that one need to clearly understand the theoretical background, that is the notions, ideas, culture and the spiritual views that we have inherit through our western ancestors, as well as the practical view.
In Sherwin B. Nuland's book "How we die," the author too offers demythological explanation of the process of death and attribute the fear of death as stemming from individuals lacking from such knowledge. According to Nuland death is unique and "The uniqueness of each of us extends even to the way we die." (Nuland 3) And at the same time he presents the opinion that death is the end of the chain of events that take place in the life of the individual. Once one learns to accept and understand this chain of events, then death becomes easier. Thus Nuland not only categorizes death as the repercussions of these chain events but they are also responsible shaping the event of death of the individual. Those who do not learn and acquire knowledge about their conditions, they remain fearful of the end and they only add agony to their painful death. Nuland thus offers the world view that how an individual experience death depends on how he/she accepts and come to terms with it through understanding and knowledge.
To illustrate, Nuland narrates his medical view through his patience's experience of death. For example in the first chapter he narrates of his first patient's death resulting from a coronary attack and despite his (Nuland's) attempts, failed to save the patient McCarty (Nuland 4). This first experience has taught him the fact that death is the result of McCarty's ignorance of his health condition and eventually this ignorance had caused a heart condition that became irreversible. Inadvertently Nuland attributes McCarty's death as a "bad death" because he considers McCarty minimal effort in perceiving his condition as the main reason for his painful end. From this point, Nuland offers the view that a good death or as most of us categorize as " 'Death with dignity' is our society's expression of the universal yearning to achieve a graceful triumph over the stark and often repugnant finality of life's last sputterings." (Nuland 10).
From Nuland's "death with dignity" one understand that one should not treat death as the enemy but the final destination...
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