“Safe Death” in the Postmodern World

Abstract

Let us begin with the proposition that some deaths are better than others. A student of logic would make mince pie of this statement in no time. “You are indulging in a lazy, gross, and elementary error’ Dying is not death. People may die in a thousand ways. This does not mean that there are a thousand kinds of death. “Dying” is our word for the particular way a person lives as life approaches cessation. “Death” is the word for our ignorance regarding what happens — or does not happen — when people stop living and dying. We may have our preferences for modalities of dying, but all reach the same destination.”