Death and dying final paper Literature & Language Essay

DEATH AND DYING
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Abstract
A research paper dwelling on death's intricacies and its effect on humankind while exploring different standpoints to explain and debunk the common myth that death is bad.
DEATH AND DYING
The narrative of death has been quite divisive and unifying in equal measures among philosophers, drawing from classical times to the modern world. Numerous scholarly discourses have been fronted, but always, almost all the time, there has never been a unified conclusion; the opinions have been divergent as ever. The topic has resulted in classism; some support the idea of death and try giving logical contributions supporting their stand, and equally, the opposers match them with much zeal. Several contrasting ideologies emerge from this topic; those who support suicidology, others euthanasia, and the believers who believe in natural death and eternity.
Is Death Bad?
It is a topic that usually leaves scholars more divided than united. Discussion on the pros and cons of death did not begin today; classical philosophers have been trying to put the matter into perspective-some in support and others vehemently disputing it in its entirety. Referencing operas by Janacek from a play by Karel Capek, in Makropulos (EM's) case, we infer that death is not a bad thing after all. The opera by Janacek talks of a woman called Elina Makropulos, alias-Emilia Marty, Ellian Macgregor, 'EM,' whose father, the Court physician to a 16th century Emperor, tried out an elixir of life on her. At that time, she was aged 342 years. Her seemingly eternal life was encompassed with boredom, indifference, and coldness. She did not seem to enjoy anything: 'in the end, it is the same,' she says, 'singing and silence.' Eventually, she refuses to retake the elixir, and she dies. After which, the formula is deliberately destroyed by a young woman among some older men's protests.
In EM's state, we deduce that death is not necessarily evil and not in agreement with everyone else; where death provides an end to great suffering but put in a more subtle acceptable way, it can be a good thing not to live too long. EM's suggestion was not that everlasting life was meaningless, but it proposed that death was not necessarily evil with supporting claims from some philosophies and religions. Two standard bases on which the theory can be pegged have been found: albeit contradicting each other but in a joint agreement, death is said by some not to be evil because it is not the end, and by others, because it is the end. There emanate profound differences from the two quotas, the believers who find consolation for the fact of death, hoping that it is only the start of eternity, and those who find comfort in the belief that it is the end of the only life that exists. There can never be any life after that but only non-existential status afterward.
Death most often is frowned, at least by many, I included. Everyone, if not, most people dread and fear death. It is usually a goal snatcher to the victim, and the bereaved are always left in agony and melancholy. It is a stand supported by Unamuno, whose work The Tragic Sense of Life' gives perhaps more extreme expression than anyone else has done-desire to be immortal. He asserts, 'I do not want to die - no, I neither want to die nor do I want to want to die; I want to live forever and ever and ever. In his soliloquy, he highlights the fact that his soul has a duration to live tortures him. In the same spirit, Unamuno distances himself from Manicheanism and Utilitarianism viewpoints on death.
Augustinian, Orphic, Platonic, and Manichean tradition contrasts the spirit and the body in that spirituality aims at truth, salvation, and eternity. In contrast, the body is subjected to temporary pleasure and eventual dissolution. Secular Utilitarianism largely affirms the same view that-bodies are all that we have or are, hence for Utilitarianism, the only arrangement within our power is the efficient organization of happiness. Immortality is a façade, so life here should last as long as we determine - or eventually, one may suspect, others will evaluate - that it is pleasant for us to be around.
Euthanasia has indeed been a topic of cont...