On Death and Dying is one of the best books I have ever read when it comes to giving you new insight into the minds of those that are not going to be here much longer. It gives you a viewpoint on death that most people don"t see until the time comes when they are about to pass away. .
The attitude towards death has greatly changed since the medical and scientific world has grown in so much importance. Now death is regarded as taboo and it is considered impolite to speak of it in most situations. People are more and more regarding death as something that should not happen, it has always been that way when a child died, but now it actually seems to offend some people when a person, most especially a child, dies. Children are probably more accepting than most because they don"t really understand what it is that has happened. Children often think of death as a trip or something that can be fixed. Maybe this is because that is how society wants them to look at it. People often try to soften the pain of losing a loved one by telling the children that they have just gone away. This can leave children blaming the person for leaving, or even hating them for the pain that separation causes.
Science has also made death much more uncomfortable, if not more painful. Before when someone knew they were going to die they spent their last days or months at home surrounded by people and things that they have loved though their lives. Now your last days are usually spent at the hospital where they deaden the pain and try to make you comfortable. A hospital, even with the pain medication is almost never as comfortable as your home. You can not be with the people you love all the time because of visiting hours, and you do not have the material things that can give you comfort. No instead you have stranger taking care of you and the gleaming metal and sterility of a place that seems to have illness in the walls themselves.
