ABSTRACT
La Rochefoucauld, a French moralist, said that man could no more look steadily at death than at the sun. He was able, without being turned into stone, to behold the head of the Gorgon Medusa reflected in a mirror given him by the goddess Athena. Most seriously ill and terminally ill patients generally prefer honest, plain talk from physicians and family about the seriousness of their illnesses. Some of the professional personnel contacted stated that they never told their patients they had a serious illness from which they could die. Death is a taboo subject in the United States, surrounded by disapproval and shame. The whole subject is unpalatable because it collides with strong notions concerning the uniqueness of life and finality of death. S. Freud has emphasized our resort to such “mischance” aspects of death as disease, infection, fortuity, and advanced age, thus betraying an eagerness to demote death from necessity to mere accident.
