Thanatology
The altered viewpoints people developed when it came to viewing and coping with death was one reason that thanatology became more accepted across societies.
[3] The Death with Dignity movement advocates for patients with a terminal illness to have a choice within a medical and legal framework to intentionally end their life.
[5] In this book, Feifel[6] dispelled myths held by scientists and practitioners about death and the denial of its importance for human behavior.
It earned wide attention and became a classic in the new field, including as it did contributions from eminent thinkers such as psychiatrist Carl Jung, theologian Paul Tillich and philosopher Herbert Marcuse.
The field was to improve death education and grief counseling by the use of valid death-related data, methodology, and theory.
'"[7] Thanatology does not always directly explore the meaning of life and of death, though such questions are relevant to the psychological health of those involved in the dying process: individuals, families, communities, and cultures.
According to one author: "Forensic medicine is the application of medical knowledge for the scientific investigation of facts and causal relationships, as well as the analysis and interpretation thereof in the service of the law in its broadest sense; moreover, it addresses all legal aspects of the practice of medicine during teaching, medical training, and specialist training."
[14] A large portion of a forensic physician's duty is to assist in inquiries into sudden and suspicious deaths and to examine individuals in connections with allegations of sexual offenses.
[15][clarification needed] Multiple scholarly journals dedicated specifically to thanatology regularly publish peer-reviewed studies and essays of interest in the field.
[17] Dr. Allan Kellerhear pointed out that Kübler-Ross' stage theory was openly discussed and outlined as a heuristic device.
He also went on to point out that she put the "stages" in inverted commas to emphasize their tentative nature in the only diagrammatic representation of these ideas in her book, "On Death & Dying."
Studies show that if one's self-esteem is already low, the death of one's partner may well result in greater social and emotional loneliness (concepts defined specifically by the researchers).
[18] However, since an imperfect grasp of these findings may lead to a garbled attempt to describe them, it is desirable to read them fully in their original sources so as to master them as thoroughly as one assimilates Kübler-Ross' theories of responses to loss.
If we mean no more than that we must know we must die in order to flourish, the assertion is facile since most humans are conscious of their mortality but we do not all rise equally well to existential or wider social challenges.
[20] In places where there is little or no publicly funded provision for hospice care, various private insurance plans such as Medicare, Medicaid, and HMO will cover the costs, reducing the direct expense to the individual's family.
In a 2016 open letter[23] to singer David Bowie, palliative care doctor Professor Mark Tauber, M.D.
The letter went viral after being shared by Bowie's son, Duncan Jones[24] and was subsequently read aloud by actor Benedict Cumberbatch and singer Jarvis Cocker at several public events.
His quest to understand and cure death itself is his sole motivation for travelling to the town where the game is set.
Death is a universal human concern; it has been examined and re-examined in a wide variety of disciplines, dating back to pre-history.
Artists, authors, and poets often employed the universality of death as a motif in their works; this trend continues today[citation needed].
[citation needed] Thanatology is by no means reducible to a section of forensic science, and the notion that it can be is symptomatic of the pathological urge of scientism to force all disciplines into its own Procrustean bed.
Medical ethics is also an important area of study, especially on the issue of euthanasia ('merciful killing') and assisted suicide.
