ABSTRACT
This chapter provides insights about the presence of death anxiety. Culture plays a role in people’s conception of death. Human beings have throughout recorded history tried to escape from the inevitability of dying. The denial of death is also supported by most cultures that promote the idea of dual existence and that human beings possess both a body and a soul. Acceptance of the finality of death also allows people to make decisions and prepare better for a good death or it allows a person to help some loved one overcome anxiety associated with dying. Acceptance of death also depends on whether the patient dies at home or in an institutional setting like a hospital or nursing home. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of the moral right to end life when the patient is terminal and in great pain.
