Death education--where is thy sting?

Abstract

We are not free to choose whether anyone will learn about death, though we have some choice about how they will learn. The author discusses the basic questions that need to be answered in planning death education at any level, and the possible goals, in terms of cognitive gain, skills, and attitudinal objectives. Some principles in regard to teaching methods and evaluation are described, with illustrations from the experiences of medical students and others. It is important that the teacher should be able to deal with the problems that such programs may arouse. Cheap emotional arousal is easy to produce, but trivial, unless creatively used for a valued purpose and adequately resolved. Death is infinitely exploitable, and the growth of death voyeurism via "education" is alarming. The capacity to recognize and avoid being exploited or exploiting others must be one of our principle educational objectives.