ABSTRACT
Childhood is supposed to be a happy time, a time when one’s thoughts and feelings are
focused on living, learning, and having fun. Consequently, children and death may
appear to be an unkind, or at least an unfortunate, combination of words. Death is seen as
a more appropriate companion of old age than of childhood. Children in many
industrialized societies today seem to be less knowledgeable about death than sex-the
opposite of what was true for children of yesteryear. Another way of expressing this
distinction is that today’s children know more about the beginning than the end of life.
