On the Future of Death: Some Images and Options

Abstract

Voices of the past insist that we have no significant options with respect to death. Voices of the future protest that the past does not hold the future captive and some even proclaim the eventual technological conquest of death. This paper offers a dialogue between past and future orientations toward death, taking as focus the question: is suicidology absurd? Some major dimensions of our culture's death system are discussed. The tendency to regard death as an individual and discrete event is contrasted with the mass processing of death (and life), and the many ways in which death-related dimensions permeate daily life. A narrow suicidology could play into some of the more dubious aspects of our national character, while an enlightened suicidology could increase our options and emphasize the inner relationship of every human being to the mortality of himself and others.