Do you really want to live to be 100 years old ? SANTARA

 "practical decisions are now based on whether a body is considered alive enough to be sustained or dead enough for organ harvesting. Advocates of organ transplantation have brought decisions of this sort into public policy agendas.

Judgments about quality of life are inseparable from the definition of death. In modern settings, whether in a trauma unit or in long-term care, matters are no longer simply about life and death but about the quality of living and dying"

https://www-clinicalkey-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/#!/content/book/3-s2.0-B9780323056748500062

Whereas a lingering death is common, and arguably natural, it is the antithesis of a “good” death in modern society

Death is often seen as sudden, untimely, tragic, preventable, and unnecessary. Because it is unexpected, it affords little, if any, opportunity for end-of-life preparation or planning. In reality, death is much more likely to occur in old age, after several years, if not decades, of living with one or more chronic illnesses. These are likely to be protracted and accompanied by increased functional limitations over time.

Still you see people dying without having a will or  a  medical power of attorney.

Common Causes of Death in Canada by Age Group

AGE (YR)	MOST COMMON	SECOND MOST COMMON	THIRD MOST COMMON
1–14	Injuries	Cancer	Congenital anomalies
15–19	Injuries	Cancer	Circulatory disease
20–24	Injuries	Cancer	Neurological disease
25–44	Injuries	Cancer	Circulatory disease
45–64	Cancer	Circulatory disease	Injuries
65+	Circulatory disease	Cancer	Respiratory disease
All ages	Circulatory disease	Cancer	Respiratory disease

 View full size

From Child Injury Division. Canadian Injury Data. Bureau of Reproductive and Child Health, Health Protection Branch, Health Canada, 1999

So become  a mortician

Cardiologist or an Oncologist and  you will have plenty of business!;-)

Death can be 

 expected / unexpected 

long / short duration

at home / in hospital

prolonged decline and  disability/ no disability

prolonged medical care/ minimal medical care

1. Life expectancy increased rapidly and remarkably in the 20th century and continues to do so in the 21st century, although more slowly. In the United States, life expectancy increased from 54 years in 1920 to 77.3 years in 2002.  10  Men born in Australia are expected to live 6 years longer than was true 20 years ago,  4  and in the United Kingdom an increase of 4.8 years in life expectancy occurred for males between 1981 and 2001.  8

2. Despite gains, men still have a shorter life expectancy than women; men typically live to 75 to 80 years of age, whereas women more often become octogenarians.  10  Women are therefore much more likely to be widowed or single at the end of life and to experience the age-based frailty that is common among the oldest-old.

3. Indigenous people and racial minorities across both genders have significantly shorter life expectancies than their nonindigenous counterparts.  11  The life expectancy for a Maori male in New Zealand is 8 years less than for his non-Maori counterpart.  6

4. The population subgroup aged 80 to 89 years is the fastest growing demographic group in modern societies. The largest proportion of decedents is from this age-based cohort.  2 3

Common Life Expectancy Trends across Modern Societies

Confident Optimism about Science

Remarkable scientific progress throughout the 20th and into the 21st century has contributed to widespread optimism that all life-threatening conditions can be beaten—particularly if efforts are uncompromised. Imagery of battle and victory over the enemy permeate discourse about diseases that plague modern society. If the battle can be won, then it seems necessary to participate in the fight. Dying people are expected to fight to live, and health care professionals are similarly expected to hold and act on this focus. Even when death is imminent, the fight to preserve life is understood as contributing toward the next breakthrough in knowledge. This may serve to create a meaningful dying process that would otherwise be emotionally painful and bereft of value in a modern society where life is revered above all else.

When dying occurs in hospitals, where the culture and mission are both oriented to saving lives and achieving cures, the inclination to apply aggressive treatment is strong. Accompanying this is the attitude that, if cure is the hallmark of success, death can be construed as failure. The choice to take action rather than to decline or withhold treatment is compelling, even for those whose preference is for an uncomplicated or natural death. Ethical considerations about futility, scarcity of health care resources, and both aging and ageism increasingly complicate decisions near the end of life. Most decisions are made by family or health care providers, with little or no guidance from the dying person. Health care providers and family members moved by loyalty to life and to their loved one may question whether enough is being done. One legacy of the work of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross is the belief that the completion of unfinished business and resolution of life are contingent on the acceptance of impending death. This legacy, coupled with the hospice and palliative care movement, has expanded the idea that, if cure is impossible, terminal symptoms such as pain and nausea must be addressed. Whether fighting and accepting death can be held in creative balance by those who hope for the best and prepare for the worst, is the key question.

REVIEW SECTION

PERSPECTIVES ON DEATH, edited by Liston O. Mills. 288 pp. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1969. S6.50.

MAN's CoNCERN WITH DEATH, edited by Arnold Toynbee, 280 pp. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1969. $7.95.

ON DEATH AND DYING, by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. 260 pp. New York, Macmillan, 1969. $5.95.

Recently a flood of books and articles on the subject of death and dying has appeared, as well as a new society devoted to its study. Several causes of this continuing tide of interest have been suggested, among which the following related factors are perhaps most prominent: (1) the sense of the "end of the age" which pervades our culture, like the end of the classical and middle-ages-both accompanied by concern with death by all segments of the populace; (2) the breakdown of traditional theological approaches to understanding death; and (3) the impossibility of sustaining much longer the massive denial of death which this breakdown has precipitated.

It was my intention originally to investigate some of what were hoped to be the more significant of these books with a view toward discovering clues for a new theology of death. After the investigation I have discovered yet another motivation behind the flow of literature-that of gaining enlightened humanitarian treatment for the dying and their families instead of the clash between scientism and sentimental traditionalism now occurring in the hospital rooms of the dying. This current-and it is a strong one-also challenges the assumption that a new theology is needed to some extent, for it emphasizes attitudes and not ideologies. I shall return to this important question of the relevance of a theology of death after surveying some central themes in the literature.

First, the literature both reflects and documents the decline in Western culture's traditional belief in the immortality of the soul, and the consequent secularization of death. In Perspectives on Death, a compilation of essays covering many aspects of the subject from a dominant theological perspective, Lou H. Silberman and Leander Keck show that the idea of the immortality of the soul has in any case no biblical foundation