Death and Dying in the United Kingdom: A Sociological Analysis

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................2
PREFERENCE OF PEOPLE DYING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM..................................................................3
PROFICIENCY OF DEATH........................................................................................................................3
REFUSAL OF THE DEATH THESIS............................................................................................................4
CRITICISM OF REFUSAL OF DEATH THESIS.............................................................................................6
DEPRIVATION AND LAMENTATION........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Death may be defined as the ceaseless end of the necessary processes going on in the cells or tissues
of an organism (Baudrillard, 2016). Every organism on this planet has a definite period of life and has
to reach its ultimate end which is called death. During this period the organism has to grow,
reproduce and transfer all the important and vital information to their next generation. This whole
process of one's life through death is called a life cycle. Homo Sapiens (human beings) are also
pestilent and have to reach towards the end of their lives. The demise of an individual is otherwise
an important thing to maintain a balance between the newborns and the older ones. Nature creates
a balance between both these processes by the phenomena of death and birth. Nature has evolved
the process of aging which is an indicator which shows that an individual is nearing towards his/her
end (Bailey et al., 2013). Death is a topic which is generally not given much concern, after all, it is one
of the most unpredictable and unavoidable things in the world. No one wants to talk or ponder over
it much. This assignment will cover all the aspects of death is a taboo in the modern world, various
philosophies over death, the shift of people's perception regarding death, rejecting the death thesis,
etc. The assignment will include the critical analysis of the decline of the death thesis and will
provide an appropriate conclusion of why death is considered as a taboo in modern society.
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PREFERENCE OF PEOPLE DYING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
The human is born under a religion, caste, creed which provides a meaning to their lives. According
to which it is seen that every religion have their different belief and way of perception towards
death. Some consider death to be the end of one life whereas others think it to be the start of a new
eternal life. Death is considered to be one of the most important processes of nature as it balances
the number of births and deaths in the eco-system. If this balance gets disturbed then the natures
other processes would get disturbed so, birth and death have to go hand-in-hand. Due to these
beliefs earlier when there was no access to medicines and other health facilities people were afraid
of deaths and were seen waiting for their deaths. But now, as the medicine is advancing the people
in the United Kingdom have a different perspective towards death. Now as an individual faces the
problem of health or related issues then he/she prefers to get admitted in the hospitals or the home
care centres. Now the majority of the population believes in going to the hospitals or other care
centres when they feel even the slightest discomfort. Now the level of perception has changed to
such an extent that instead of waiting for death in their homes people prefer to get treated and
increase their life expectancy. According to a poll done it was seen that in 1960 almost 50% of the
population died at hospitals due to lack of appropriate medical facilities, whereas about 42% of them
died at homes waiting for their health to deteriorate further eventually leading to death. The change
in the mindset of people created a huge difference in the results of the survey done in 1960. The
survey done in 1991 showed that the number of people dying in hospitals increased to 64% whereas
those dying at home were reduced to up to 25% (Jupp, 2016). The advancement in recent medicine
has led to such a drastic change in the mindset of people. But now it is again seen that people prefer
to die at home this is because of the expenses of the hospital and medicines which the lower class of
people cannot afford. So they prefer to die in their homes. Apart from this, some cultures in Japan
and Korea believe that if one is admitted in the hospital their soul gets trapped and cannot reach to
the eternal world. So in order to free their souls from the bodies they prefer to die at homes
(Chapple et al., 2015).
PROFICIENCY OF DEATH
Death proficiency is referred to as the phase of one’s life while he/she is experiencing on a death-
bed. The well-renowned psychiatrist Kubler Ross says that when a person is suspected with a life-
threatening disease which may lead to his/her end, that stage comprises of various sections which
are very well elaborated. Kubler Ross evaluated those five stages and explained them with respect to
the human behaviour which the individual experiences while facing the disease which leads to the
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end of life. Those five stages are a refusal, outrage, bargain, recession and acceptance ( Bailey and
Yates, 2013).
Refusal is said to be the first and foremost part of a person’s reaction when he/she gets to know
about the disease, its progression and its eventual destruction to the human body. No one wants to
die. When one comes to know about the reality of the disease and the truth that he/she is not going
to be in between us for a long time, then the nature of refusal is seen in him/her.
Outraging is another part of the person's reaction where an individual always thinks about why this
has happened with him/her only and not others. The individual is in search of the answer to the
question that why has this tragedy happened with him/her and finally ends up with frustration
compromising with the quality of life.
Bargaining is the phase when an individual's refusal is shifting towards acceptance. Here the person
starts bargaining with destiny to hold on the death until his/her particular desire is fulfilled. This
describes that now the person has accepted his/her state of disease and now is willing to live happily
until a particular moment of time.
Recession is the stage when an individual is unhappy, restless and lost the positivity which
undermines the path of progress and the recovery from this point usually vanishes.
Acceptance is the final stage where the person is now mentally at peace with his/her stage and now
calmly waits for the death. This stage can be differentiated from others by observing the individual's
interest in spirituality and religious activities (Friedman and James, 2008).
The psychiatrist Kubler Ross has successfully explained how death has been a failure for the
individual and how he/she accepts that fact. While naturally and gradually the person's mental and
cognitive functions slowly down leading him/her to stop struggling with life and accept the state of
death happily.
REFUSAL OF THE DEATH THESIS
In the advanced society, death is considered as taboo and no one wants to talk about it as many
other topics are being discussed by us. Refusal from the thesis of death tells how the modern
population is unaware of the concept of death and how they deny the fact of dealing with death.
The modern world thinks that death can be delayed with the medicines available and other health
facilities in reach of the people. But, death is as natural as the process of birth. As one is born he/she
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has to die to maintain the decorum of nature. If this does not happen then there may be an
imbalance between the resources and their users. Those who consider that death can be chased by
the recent advancements then they are considered to be the antagonistic elements in the society.
Death is something which every one of us encounters in our daily lives be it our relatives, friends,
neighbours, newspaper or any other means of media and then too no one wants to accept this fact
(Corr, Corr, and Doka, 2018). Every individual is blessed with some explicit way of dealing with death
and related issues, but those afraid of such situations opt to run away from it by denying the fact.
Death is real and natural and denying it will lead to an unprepared and unpremeditated individual.
Majority of the times it has been noticed that people who have experienced the demise of their
relatives or loved ones usually avoid talking about it. The modern world is been so much materialistic
that one is never prepared about the death and its harsh reality that he/she has to leave the world
with all its materials left in the world itself. The modern era is the era of advancement of medicine
which focuses on increasing the expectancy of life rather than focussing on death which is the bitter
truth of everyone's life.
The refusal of the thesis of death has been postulated by many authors among whom the most
famous is Aries who highlighted the concept of ‘tamed death' and then he complimented it with the
‘forbidden death'. The author successfully explained that how older ancient people were aware of
their deaths because they used to see their elders die in front of them and so for them the concept
of death was very clear (Friedman and James, 2008). But now the modern society does not stay with
their elders and send them to the old age homes and day-care centres, due to which they cannot
accept the reality of death and remain unaware about the death and other related concepts. Aries
explained that the shift of people’s attitude towards life expectancy has increased due to which the
term forbidden death has been coined. Earlier the people feared death less as compared to the
people in the modern era. It is because the people don't talk generally over this issue and so they are
unaware of the fact that death is important for the continuity of the life cycle on this globe. Modern
science and medicinal advancements have made it difficult for the family to understand the
importance of death. These days, doctors don’t talk in front of the patients about their death in
order to avoid unnecessary psychological complications, and this is supposed to be the most
important reason of the modern generations to refuse the thesis of death (Gilmore, Schafer, and
Halcrow, 2013).
The other author named Norbert Elias says that the only factor responsible in the denial of death
thesis is the overall care of the person and the advanced hospital facilities which leads to the
rejection of the death thesis. Modern medicine and technologies and recent advancements have
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generated thinking in the minds of people which say that modern medicine can overcome death. But
this is unnatural and if this persists anyhow there would be a disturbance in the balance of the
ecosystem. Due to this, a mentality is created among the people who say that death is under the
control of human beings, and due to this they started denying the fact of death. Another author,
Gorer stated that earlier people used to follow all the rituals of death and also mourned at the death
of the individual due to which they were aware of this concept. But in the modern era due to the
busy schedules, people have no time for completing the rituals of cremation and they also don't
mourn at the deaths. This leads them to decreased exposure to death (Hanusch, 2010).
CRITICISM OF REFUSAL OF DEATH THESIS
Several aspects of the death thesis do not fit for modern society. The authors have said the society
to be a rigid and non-flexible part of the living world which does not change with the changing
society and trends. This is not true, as according to change in the mindsets of people one has to
change some of the aspects and ways of thinking of the society. So the refusal of the death thesis is
irrational. In every era, people try to adapt themselves towards the change and they start thinking
rationally and practically towards that approach of life (Neimeyer, 2015). Earlier people believed in
the rituals such as the person who is dead and the family under which death has occurred undergoes
some spiritual purification due to which they have a positive approach towards death.
Blaming the healthcare professionals for a decline of the death thesis is not correct because the
doctors and other health care professionals do not provide more years to the life instead they
increase the probability of one's life enhanced (Hockey, J. et al. 2010). The earlier society blamed the
priests behind the death of an individual. This is not true because the priests cannot predict when a
person is about to die or how many more years he/she is going to live more. In the modern era, the
legislation has made it much clear and easy to declare or certify the death of an individual
(Kastenbaum, 2015).
The most important factor is to now bring back the concept of death among the people and this
could be done by spreading awareness among the population with the help of social or print media.
Apart from this various authors and poets can also help in generating awareness among the people.
Rejuvenation of the concept of death is now to be brought among the people who will help them
know about the fact and balance of nature.
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DEPRIVATION AND LAMENTATION
Deprivation is a state of one’s isolation from others due to the death of any family member or the
loved ones. It is usually seen that the families or the persons who have lost their loved ones don't
connect to the society easily and prefer to remain isolated because these people don't want
themselves to be negatively criticized in front of others (Hockey et al, 2010). Deprivation and
lamentation are described through various theories given by different writers. A theory given by
Parker has different stages of affliction which are- shock, despondency, and retrieval. Another
theorist Rando has given six different stages of grief – stage of loss, stage of reaction, re-establishing
the relationship with the dead, surrenders the memories, re-adjustment, and re-investment.
In the above-explained stages, Rando stated how a person mourns at the death of one's loved one
and how does he/she comes back to resume his/her normal life by relishing the memories with the
dead person. These stages explained successfully the pattern and continuity of grief but unable to
explain the concept of death to a major level (Irish, Lundquist and Nelsen, 2014).
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CONCLUSION
Death is something which is beyond human’s control and it cannot be replaced by any other thing in
this world. Medical technology and recent advancements in the field of medicine have been proved
to be beneficial in enhancing one’s quality of life but it cannot make a person immortal. It is seen
that people nowadays don't talk much about death because of they somehow or the other fear
about it (Glaser et al., 2017). The people of the ancient era were supposed to not fear death because
they had a clear exposure to the death of their family members, neighbours, etc. The death thesis is
now a day rejected because of palliative care and medicines. Also, the concept of reviving the death
thesis is proved to be good in improving awareness of the importance and the fact behind the death
of an individual. Hence, it can be successfully concluded that whatever advancements are made by
the human being in the field of medicine, death is something which cannot be opposed by them at
any cost.
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REFERENCES
Bailey, L.W. and Yates, J., 2013. The near-death experience: A reader. Routledge.
Baudrillard, J., 2016. Symbolic exchange and death.Sage.
Bury, M., 2013. Health and illness in a changing society.Routledge.
Chapple, A., Ziebland, S. and Hawton, K., 2015.Taboo and the different death?Perceptions of
those bereaved by suicide or other traumatic death. Sociology of health & illness, 37(4), pp.610-
625.
Corr, C.A., Corr, D.M., and Doka, K.J., 2018.Death & dying, life & living.Cengage Learning.
Friedman, R. and James, J.W., 2008. The myth of the stages of dying, death and grief. Skeptic
(Altadena, CA), 14(2), pp.37-42.
Gilmore, H., Schafer, C., and Halcrow, S., 2013. Tapu and the invention of the "death taboo": An
analysis of the transformation of a Polynesian cultural concept. Journal of Social
Archaeology, 13(3), pp.331-349.
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L., 2017. Awareness of dying.Routledge.
Hanusch, F. 2010Representing death in the news: journalisam, media & mortality. Basingstoke:
Palgrave MacMillan.
Hockey, J. et al. 2010 The matter of death: space, place & materiality. Basingstoke: Palgrave
MacMillan.
Irish, D.P., Lundquist, K.F. and Nelsen, V.J., 2014. Ethnic variations in dying, death and grief:
Diversity in universality. Taylor & Francis.
Jupp, P.C., 2016. Contemporary issues in the sociology of death, dying and disposal.Springer.
Kastenbaum, R., 2015. Death, Society and Human Experience (1-download).Routledge.
Neimeyer, R.A., 2015. Death anxiety handbook: Research, instrumentation, and application.
Taylor & Francis
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