death and dying

During the course of my research, I encountered many issues. I struggled to find information regarding 'mortuary rituals' for the 20th century and how they have changed. I checked out books from the library and searched for information on the Kent Library online databases as well as various websites such as Funeral Home websites.  I have also learned that I am not a very good 'blogger'. I am not one who likes to put personal thoughts out into the worldwide web for all to see and I am still not too comfortable with discussing the subject of death. Since I have never maintained a blog before, I'm not 100% sure how this is supposed to work. ( I realized that some of my posts just stayed in draft mode unseen instead of published to view) 
Anyways... lets move on to death. 
 One article I stumbled upon by author Stella Mary O’gormann states that in the first half of the 20th century, our society had lost sight of the importance of rituals associated with death and dying and of the need for appropriate death education.We found ourselves unable to cope with the inevitability of death.


During the 20th century , history shows that the doctor is taking more of the lead and interposing himself between the patient and death. By the middle of the 20th century, we begin to acknowledge the fact that health has become a commodity undermining the unique spiritual and intellectual strength of humans which enables them to rise to the challenges of dying and death. the patient is no longer able to set the scene for his own death and nor can the professionals( doctors,etc) who have taken control of life and death agree amongst themselves what actually constitutes death. Individuals in our past typically died at home, but then we see a transition of individuals dying in institutions such as hospitals. We then see a movement of hospice care and some are brought back home to die. Some family and friends/neighbors often feel unwelcome and uncomfortable especially in intensive care units in hospitals to visit the person about to die.

Several contemporary authors seem to agree that western affluent societies are unable to look upon death and rituals as a right of passage to be compared with birth, coming of age, marriage and even retirement

Death and dying are no longer a family affair as it has been taken over by doctors and other medical personnel. After death, it is the funeral director that arranges for the preparation of the body, resorting to all the technology of the day so that the corpse ( the deceased) looks as 'natural' as possible for the wake/viewing. 

Death is not something that we typically talk about in our society today.Our society has endangered health by being unable to discuss death due to uncomfortableness. Fear of death and unresolved grief can cause issues such as anxiety, depression and even physical disease. Nowadays, cremation seems to be a clean and and an accelerated way of avoiding the horrors of physical decay and the cost of an expensive gravestone. It has become an alternative to the traditional funeral service.

O’gorman, S. (1998). Death and dying in contemporary society: an evaluation of current attitudes and the rituals associated with death and dying and their relevance to recent understandings of health and healing. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 27(6), 1127-1135.