Acceptance Of Death Research Articles

Seeing Death with More Equanimity: The Indirect Effect of Generativity on Death Acceptance Through Ego-Integrity

In two studies with German adults aged 40 years or older, it was hypothesized that there is an indirect positive effect of generativity on death acceptance through ego-integrity: That is, generativity is positively associated with death acceptance in that it positively relates to ego-integrity, which positively relates to death acceptance. Study 1 (N = 312) confirms this hypothesis. Additional exploratory analyses, however, revealed that the indirect effect was not valid for younger participants. This difference could be attributed to a moderation effect of age on the relation between ego-integrity and death acceptance, which increased with age. Study 2 (N = 314) differentiates between neutral, approach, and escape acceptance. Again, analyses yielded the hypothesized indirect effect for neutral death acceptance. Moreover, there was a negative indirect effect for escape acceptance. For approach acceptance, no indirect effect emerged. Thus, although the overall results confirm an indirect positive effect of generativity on death acceptance through ego-integrity, which had previously been reported only for fear of death, the role of age in this context should further be examined.

Stakeholders’ perspectives of a good death: A qualitative study from Thailand

BackgroundA ‘good death’ is one of palliative care's main goals. However, there are different perspectives on what a good death is. Perspectives from three groups of people involved in the dying process: patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers; are crucial because how they interact will affect the overall quality of end-of-life care. ObjectiveThe aims were to 1) explore what is a good death and 2) how to achieve it from the perspectives of those involved in patient care. MethodsA qualitative study was conducted between February to August 2019. The recruitment triad of stakeholders consisted of one patient with their primary caregiver and their physician. Interviews were conducted by researchers who had no prior relationship with the participants and were not a part of the healthcare team. Each research aim was analyzed separately using thematic content analysis. Data saturation was reached when no new or emerging themes emerged. Fourteen people were interviewed; five patients, five caregivers, and four physicians. ResultsRegarding perspectives of a good death, four themes emerged: 1: Peaceful natural progression and symptom-free, 2: Acceptance of death and dignity, 3: Readiness for death is facilitated by social support and the environment, and 4: Faith and religious values can bring peace. For the second research question regarding how to help the patient achieve a good death, three themes emerged: 1: provide supportive care, 2: good communication, and 3: prioritize the patients’ wishes. ConclusionIn the Thai context, the meaning of a good death relates to symptom control, acceptance of death, social support, and faith. However, a clear understanding of each individual's meaning of good death is required due to individualized needs and perceptions. Physicians and stakeholders looking to support good death should focus on providing supportive care, good communication, and prioritizing the patient's will and wishes.

Queer Terror Management: The Effect of Death Attitudes on Gender Stereotypes

The present research aims to facilitate radical, intersectional psychosocial intervention in gender stereotypes. Queer terror management theory provides a theoretical framework for an effect of death attitudes on stereotypes about sex, gender and desire. An initial version of the theory assumed that death acceptance would inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes, depending on the moderating role of mortality salience. A quasi-experiment with Implicit Association Tests and explicit surveys was run to put the theory to an initial test. Results showed that a more positive death valence in wave 1 - not death acceptance or mortality salience - was associated with less implicit sexual identification, gender prejudice and homonegativity. Explicit results were not conclusive. Future research shall replicate the quasi-experiment and broaden its scope to further kinds of social prejudice.

An integrative review on cadaver practice among undergraduate nursing students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the experiences and perceptions of nursing students related to their cadaver practice through an integrative review.Methods: An integrative review was conducted using Whittemore and Knafl’s framework published in 2005. The key words, “nursing students & cadaver” and “nursing students & anatomy” were used to search peer-reviewed publications in six databases. Among 373 searched articles, 15 articles were selected after excluding articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria. The literature quality was moderate (levels C and B).Results: The results from the 15 selected studies were integrated and classified into seven themes: “anxiety and discomfort,” “gratitude and respect for donors,” “dignity of the human body and life,” “acceptance of death,” “getting closer to the nursing profession,” “enhanced understanding and memory of the human body” and “enhancement of learning motivation.”Conclusion: In conclusion, cadaver practice provided an opportunity to form values about the dignity of life and death, helped nursing students understand the human body, and motivated them to approach the profession of nursing. It is suggested to develop integrated cadaver practice programs that incorporate bioethics, spiritual nursing, and the vocation of the nursing profession.

Death Education for Palliative Psychology: The Impact of a Death Education Course for Italian University Students.

The present study investigated the effects of a hybrid online course on a group of Italian Master's degree students involved in a European Erasmus+ project. The course was composed of nine modules about death education, palliative psychology and the use of creative arts therapies-such as psychodrama, intermodal psychodrama and photovoice-in the end-of-life-field. The project involved 64 students in the experimental group (who attended the course) and 56 students as the control group. Both groups completed an online questionnaire before and after the delivery of the course and 10 students from the experimental group participated in a focus group at the end of the course. The quantitative analysis revealed that the experimental group students showed lesser levels of perception of death as annihilation, fear of the death and death avoidance, while they increased their levels of death acceptance, creative self-efficacy and attitude toward the care of the dying. Qualitative analysis identified three main themes: the positive impact of the course on death education and end-of-life care; the role of art therapies on death and end-of-life care; and the unhelpful facets of the course. Overall, this intervention changed the perception and the feelings of the students regarding the themes of death and palliative psychology and increased their creative self-efficacy and their interest in working in an end-of-life field.

Nurses´ Attitudes Towards Dying and Death

Introduction. Death means the irreversible termination of the organism’s vital activities. Dying presents an irreversible state of an incurable disease from which death is expected in due time. The experience of meaning in life is defined as the degree to which an individual understands and sees significance in his life, how and to what extent he feels purpose in life. Aim. The aim of this research was to determine the role of demographic characteristics (gender, age, level of education, religiosity), their relationship with the experience of meaning in the life of nurses, and the relationship between the attitudes of nurses towards death and dying with the experience of meaning in life. Methods. The research was conducted in the period from May to June 2022. The survey was composed of three parts, and was posted on the Facebook social network in the group named Nurses together. A total of 240 participants took part in the research, of which 185 were female nurses and 55 were male nurses, with an average age of 33.05 years (SD=10.10). The instruments that were used in the research were the Purpose in Life Test and Death Attitude Profile – Revised. Results. The obtained results do not indicate that women perceive their life as more meaningful compared to men. Also, healthcare professionals with a higher level of education perceive their life to be significantly more meaningful compared to healthcare professionals with secondary education. Regarding the relationship between the experience of meaning in life and some concepts of acceptance of death, it has been proven that a greater experience of meaning in life can be found in respondents who consider death as a natural process of the journey towards the afterlife. The degree of religiosity was not significantly related to the perception of the meaning of life.Conclusion. Further research is needed to investigate the determinants of mortality in order to more scientifically determine the perception of the experience of meaning in life and attitudes towards death and dying among nurses. The importance of such research is reflected in the effort to raise awareness of the usefulness of the experience of meaning in life in the complete functioning of the individual and the quality of life.

Applying Terror Management Theory to Explain International Faculty Responses to COVID-19 Control Measures

The paper analyses an institutional approach and international faculty responses to implementation of social-distancing measures during COVID-19 on a residential campus of an international university in Kazakhstan. Terror-Management Theory is used to interpret the behavioral responses of the faculty. The theory predicts three types of international faculty responses to the conscious fear of death from COVID-19 – death avoidance, death acceptance, and death negation. These responses determine the extent of compliance with social distance-control measures. In addition three anxiety-buffering mechanisms proposed by the theory – commitment to particular worldviews, self-esteem enhancement and maintenance of social connections – serve as factors of variation in responses. Implications are drawn from the results about the relevance of the theory to the analysis of campus population responses to COVID-19-control measures on domestic and international campuses. Recommendations for university administrators at international universities are made about managing the three types of responses.

Stavovi o smrti i zbrinjavanje na kraju života

End-of-life care represents a unique segment of palliative care. In the end-of-life period, the task of the involved healthcare professionals is to accompany patients during their last days, weeks or months of life to the moment of their death. The way people die has changed profoundly over the past 70 years. Health care is now the main context in which many people encounter death. The focus is on clinical interventions in the end-of-life period with the aim of defeating death, while a broader context and the significance of dying is neglected. Progressive medicalization of dying has inevitably led to changing attitudes towards death and dying in both general population and healthcare professionals. There is a struggle among healthcare professionals and individuals as well to accept the inevitability of death. There has been a growing interest in examining attitudes towards death and dying, in order to achieve a greater acceptance of death with repercussions on adequate planning and implementation of end-of-life care. A thorough understanding and estimation of attitudes to death and dying, both among general population and among health professionals, is required for the development of an effective strategy to promote end-of-life care. Due to the upcoming examination of attitudes to death and dying in Serbia, as well as exploring their influence on attitudes to end-of-life care, this paper presents the current knowledge in this area.

Loneliness, spiritual well-being, and death perception, as well as their risk factors in urological cancer patients.

Cancer patients commonly suffer from loneliness, poor spiritual status, and fear of death; however, these evaluations are rarely revealed in urological cancer patients. Thus, this study aimed to assess the loneliness, spiritual well-being, and death perception, as well as their risk factors in urological cancer patients. A total of 324 urological (including renal, bladder, and prostate) cancer patients and 100 healthy controls were included. The University of California and Los Angeles loneliness scale (UCLA-LS), functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp), and death attitude profile-revised (DAP-R) scores were evaluated. The results showed that the UCLA-LS score was higher, but the FACIT-Sp score was lower in urological cancer patients than in healthy controls. According to the DAP-R score, fear of death, death avoidance, and approaching death acceptance were elevated, but neutral acceptance was lower in urological cancer patients than in healthy controls. Among urological cancer patients, the UCLA-LS score was highest but the FACIT-Sp score was lowest in bladder cancer patients; regarding the DAP-R score, fear of death and death avoidance were highest, but approaching death acceptance was lowest in bladder cancer patients. Interestingly, single/divorced/widowed status, bladder cancer diagnosis, higher pathological grade, surgery, systemic treatment, and local treatment were independent factors for higher UCLA-LS score or lower FACIT-Sp score. In conclusion, urological cancer (especially bladder cancer) patients bear increased loneliness and reduced spiritual well-being; they also carry higher fear of death, death avoidance, and approaching death acceptance but lower neutral acceptance of death.

СМЕРТЬ-УХОД В ЗЕРКАЛЕ РУССКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ XI–XXI ВЕКОВ

The article examines how the idea of death as “departure”, being typical for the Russian medieval mentality, was transformed in Russian literature of the second half of the XX – beginning of the XXI century. It allows us to identify changes in modern public consciousness. The article reveals that the idea of death as “departure” is characteristic of the Old Russian literature, and, in particular, of the hagiographic tradition based on the ideas of Orthodoxy. Continued in the literature of the XIX century, this tradition gained newfound relevance in the middle of the XX century in the works of authors who survived the Second World War, in particular, Y. Kazakov, in whose mind there is a struggle of opposing ideas about death. A meaningful acceptance of death is distinctive for the authors representing so-called “village” prose of the second half of the XX century. The strengthening of naturalistic and postmodern trends in the literature of the late XX century deprives the image of death of the aura of sacredness. However, along with this, there is a return to the hagiographic tradition, for example, in the prose of M. Paley, in which death as “departure” appears as a measure of the moral assessment of characters again. The article can be useful in the theoretical aspect for further development of methods of interdisciplinary analysis of essential phenomena of human existence.

To the Question of Attitude to Death of Middle-Aged People During the War in Ukraine

A person's attitude to death is influenced by the critical situations he encounters in his life. The war, which began in Ukraine at the beginning of 2022, made people's feelings about death relevant, because death has become everyday reality in the lives of Ukrainians. The purpose of the study is to determine the peculiarities of middle-aged people attitude to the phenomenon of death during the war in Ukraine. A sample of subjects (N=76) who previously participated in our research in 2019 and 2020 during the coronavirus infection. The age of the subjects varies as follows: Me=44.00; min=35.00; max=55.00. Research methods: the "Attitude to Death" method (I.Yu. Kulagina, L.V. Senkevich), the "Attitude to Death Scale" method by D.V. Hardt, Metaphor of Personal Death technique – the Revised Death Fantasy Scale (RDFS) J. McLennan. It was determined that the attitude towards death in people of the studied middle-aged group during the war is ambivalent with a certain deviation towards the positive. The studied group is characterized by an average level of stress resistance, which is associated with thoughts about death. The choice of metaphors about death is determined by the degree of attitude positivity towards death: a pessimistic attitude towards death is associated with negative thoughts about death, fixation on its external side, avoidance of contact with death. Lack of seeing a positive perspective in death leads to pessimism and negative thoughts. An optimistic attitude towards death is associated with the rare occurrence of negative thoughts about own death, perception of death as a necessary aspect of being, openness to contact with death. Significant differences were found between believers and atheists on the indicator of positive thoughts about their own death: believers showed a high level of acceptance of death. Significant differences in attitudes toward death between men and women were also identified: men have a more positive and "black" humor to thoughts about death.

Last utterances of patients in Covid Intensive Care Units: A qualitative study

BackgroundNurses who provide patient care in COVID-19 intensive care have witnessed that patients experience problems such as fear of death, loneliness, helplessness, uncertainty, anxiety, etc. ObjectiveIn this study, it was aimed to examine the messages written by the patients who receive treatment in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) through letters and their feelings and thoughts which they wanted to convey to their families. MethodThis study employed a qualitative research design. The sample of the study consisted of 52 patients admitted to the ICU. The data of the study were obtained by examining the letters written by the patients who received treatment in the COVID-19 ICU between April 2021 and June 2021. The researchers collected the research data through document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. FindingsThe messages that patients in the ICU wanted to convey to their families were identified as having two main themes: “emotions in the experience of illness” and “views on death.” The “views on death” theme included sub-themes such as fear of death, the meaning of life, acceptance of death and Saying halal for the rights over each other, and wills. The “emotions in the experience of illness” theme included sub-themes of love, hope/ hopelessness, loneliness, and longing. ConclusionIt is assumed that patients have the risk of encountering a variety of problems during their stay in ICU due to COVID-19 and that providing good physical and psychosocial care will improve the coping mechanisms of patients.

DEATH FEARS AND ANXIETY ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE: IMPLICATIONS FOR DEATH REFORM

Abstract Western culture is experiencing a movement for death reform which includes aspects such as death acceptance and supporting individual choice concerning how one wishes to experience end-of-life (EOL). The underlying goal of this reform is to foster natural curiosity about death and dying in order to soothe death fears and anxiety. Over the past few decades in the U.S. there has been an increase in public support for the EOL option of medical-aid-in-dying (MAID), or legally prescribed pharmaceuticals intended to cause death. There have been mixed findings regarding the effects of age on attitudes and perspectives towards death and dying. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between age, death fears and anxiety, values and perspectives, demographic characteristics, and approval of MAID at EOL in a U.S. nationally representative sample (N = 1994), using a partially latent structural equation model (SEM). Results show that age has a curvilinear effect on death fears and anxiety, and that as death fears and anxiety increase support for MAID decrease. This suggests that the ability to provide person-and-family-centered care at EOL must address the biopsychosocial aspect of death fears and anxiety across the life course. These findings demonstrate the need for more research documenting changes in attitude and perspectives towards EOL for different populations (i.e., ages). The potential benefits of this approach provide a basis for expanding education and awareness of both death and dying in general, and EOL needs and wants for older adult populations.

Dying a 'Good' Death: The Work, Care, and Support of End-of-Life Doulas.

End-of-life doulas (EOLDs) are a growing population of care providers who focus on the wishes of the dying person in order to cultivate an environment of comfort, peace, and support from the point of terminal diagnosis, during the dying process, and following death. The purpose of this study was to document the time commitment of EOLDs to dying persons and their loved ones during the dying process, as well as their experiences navigating family dynamics working towards increased acceptance of death. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to gather data on EOLDs, consisting of a quantitative survey with 618 respondents and subsequent qualitative interviews conducted with 39 participants. Results indicated that the amount of time spent with dying persons and their loved ones varies widely and often depends on when the EOLD is contracted regarding services. Factors that impede and lead to great acceptance of death are discussed as well as the role of EOLDs in navigating family dynamics.

Thanatological Discourse in Ivan Bunin’s Works

The article analyses the memoir notes of Ivan Bunin and his contemporaries, who knew him closely, which express his attitude to death. Bunin’s notes, drafts and diaries are full of his reflections on the subject of finiteness of human life. In conversations with relatives and friends he confessed that he “is obsessed with the death” and that he “is afraid of it.” The theme of death is the key issue in many of Ivan Bunin’s prosaic and poetic works. In the book “The Life of Arsenyev,” which can be considered the writer’s autobiography, he mentions the fact that the acceptance of death has made him think about the existence of God and the existential dilemma for the first time. Bunin’s fear of death was a kind of a phobia reflected in all his works. The idea of the finiteness of existence is based not only on the perception and feelings of some of Bunin’s characters, but also on the fate of entire social classes. This is why Bunin’s imagery is characterized by a nostalgic, elegiac tone, the “matte silver” colour (according to M. Gorky). The writer rebels against the inevitability of death the way children do (“I will not give in”) and the way writers do by using their works as a line of defense in the struggle over time (“Now you are a thought. You are eternal”). A specific thanatological perception of the world sharpened his attention to Buddhism and to the doctrine of reincarnation. The “law of beauty” for Bunin is based on an eschatological view. That is why he doesn’t write about the future and interprets everything related to the ideal, nature and eternity in a Christian way

Analysis of content and online public responses to media articles that raise awareness of the opt-out system of consent to organ donation in England.

Preceded by a national media campaign, in May 2020, England switched to a soft opt-out system of organ donation which rests on the assumption that individuals meeting specific criteria have consented to organ donation unless they have expressed otherwise. We aimed to learn more about how the changes were communicated, how people responded and any discrepancies between key messages and how they were interpreted by the public. Summative content analysis of 286 stories and related reader-generated comments in leading UK online news sources (April 2019 to May 2021). Further detailed thematic analysis of 21 articles with reader-generated content, complemented by thematic content analysis coding of all 286 stories. Most media coverage on both organ donation and the law change was positive, with little variation over time or between publications. The importance of organ donation, benefits of the law change, and emotive stories (often involving children) of those who had donated an organ described as "superheroes" or those who had received organs as benefiting from a "miracle" were frequently cited. In contrast, reader-generated comments were markedly more negative, for example, focusing on loss of individual freedom and lack of trust in the organ donation system. Commentators wished to be able to choose who their organs were donated to, were dismissive and blaming towards minority ethnic groups, including undermining legitimate worries about the compatibility of organ donation with religious beliefs and end of life cultural norms, understanding and acceptance of brain-stem death and systemic racism. Misinformation including use of inflammatory language was common. The portrayal of donors and recipients as extraordinary is unlikely to help to normalise organ donation. Undermining legitimate concerns, in particular those from ethnic minorities, can alienate and encourage harmful misinformation in underrepresented groups. The discrepancies between the tone of the articles and the readers comments suggests a lack of trust across the public, health, policy and media outlets. Easily accessible, ongoing and tailored sources are needed to mitigate misinformation and disinformation and ensure key messages are better understood and accepted in order to realise the ambitions of soft opt-out organ donation policies.

Perceptions of Death Among Patients with Advanced Cancer Receiving Early Palliative Care and Their Caregivers: Results from a Mixed-Method Analysis.

Oncologists are often concerned that talking about death with patients may hinder their relationship. However, the views of death held by patients have not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to describe the perception of death among patients with advanced cancer receiving early palliative care (EPC) and their caregivers. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed on 2 databases: (a) transcripts of open-ended questionnaires administered to 130 cancer patients receiving EPC with a mean age of 68.4 years and to 115 primary caregivers of patients on EPC with a mean age of 56.8; (b) texts collected from an Italian forum, containing instances of web-mediated interactions between patients and their caregivers. Quantitative analysis shows that: (a) patients and caregivers are not afraid of speaking about death; (b) patients and caregivers on EPC use the word "death" significantly more than patients on standard oncology care (SOC) and their caregivers (P < .0001). For both participants on EPC and SOC, the adjectives and verbs associated with the word "death" have positive connotations; however, these associations are significantly more frequent for participants on EPC (verbs, Ps < .0001; adjectives, Ps < .003). Qualitative analysis reveals that these positive connotations refer to an actual, positive experience of the end of life in the EPC group and a wish or a negated event in the SOC group. EPC interventions, along with proper physician-patient communication, may be associated with an increased acceptance of death in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.

Exploring the psychological and religious perspectives of cancer patients and their future financial planning: a Q-methodological approach

BackgroundCancer patients are often hesitant to talk about their mental health, religious beliefs regarding the disease, and financial issues that drain them physically and psychologically. But there is a need to break this taboo to understand the perceptions and behaviours of the patients. Previous studies identified many psychological factors that are bothering cancer patients. However, it still requires exploring new elements affecting their mental and physical health and introducing new coping strategies to address patients’ concerns.MethodsThe current study aims to identify cancer patients’ perceived attitudes towards the severity of illness, understand their fears, tend towards religion to overcome the disease, and future financial planning by using a Q-methodological approach. Data were collected in three steps from January-June 2020, and 51 cancer patients participated in the final stage of Q-sorting.ResultsThe findings of the study are based on the principal component factor analysis that highlighted three essential factors: (1) feelings, (2) religious beliefs about the acceptance of death, and (3) their future personal and financial planning. Further, the analysis shows that the patients differ in their beliefs, causes and support that they received as a coping mechanism.ConclusionThis study explains cancer patients’ psychological discomfort and physical pain but cannot relate it to co-morbidities. Q methodology allows the contextualization of their thoughts and future planning in different sets, like acceptance of death, combating religion’s help, and sharing experiences through various platforms. This study will help health professionals derive new coping strategies for treating patients and financial managers to design insurance policies that help them to share their financial burdens.

Humor and poignancy: Exploring narrative pathways to face death and bereavement

Themes of death and grief emerge in media entertainment in ways that are both poignant and humorous. In this experimental study, we extend research on eudaimonic narratives about death to consider those that are hedonic. Participants read a story about a woman giving a eulogy for her friend that was manipulated to be either poignant-focused or humor-focused, and answered questions about their responses to the story, feelings of connectedness with others, and death acceptance. The narrative conditions elicited similar levels of narrative engagement and appreciation, but the humor-focused narrative elicited more enjoyment than the poignant-focused narrative. Connectedness did not differ between conditions. However, the humor-focused narrative elicited more death acceptance when controlling for participants' personal loss acceptance and grief severity, and individual differences in the dark tetrad personality traits, trait depression, and religious upbringing. We tested these effects in an integrated path model and found that the model fit the data well and the narrative pathways explained variance in both death acceptance and connectedness. Our findings have implications for how death and grief are depicted in media entertainment: namely, that death is an inherently poignant topic and the addition of humorous elements in bereavement narratives may be especially effective in increasing death acceptance.

Masal ve Efsanelerde Yaşlıların Öldürülmesi Motifi

Yaşlıların öldürülmesi, uzun zamandır bilim çevrelerinin tartıştığı, bilim insanlarının bir kısmının da kabul ettiği bir olgudur. Söz konusu olgu, günümüzde “ötanazi”nin bir çeşidi olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Dünyanın çeşitli yerlerinden derlenen sözlü kültür ürünlerinde yaşlıların öldürülmesi motifiyle, bu motifin pek çok varyantıyla karşılaşılmaktadır. Söz konusu motif Avrupa’dan Asya’ya, Afrika’nın bir bölümüne kadar yayılmış durumdadır. Motifin Türk anlatılarında az da olsa kullanıldığı görülmektedir. Yaşlıların öldürülmesi, halk anlatılarında çok farklı şekillerde yer alabilmektedir. Yaşlıların öldürülmesi motifinin bulunduğu efsane ve masallarda, geleneklerin sürdürülmesi ve son bulması ekseninde anlatımın kurulduğu görülmektedir. Makalede; bireyin gelenek ve kendisi arasında kalması durumu, halk anlatılarında yaşlıların öldürülmesi motifi üzerinden ele alınmaktadır. Bu motifin dünya anlatılarında çeşitli varyantları olduğu belirtilmekte, bunların mukayesesi yapılmaktadır. Varyantların ortaya çıkış sebepleri, yaşlıların toplum içindeki rolü, yaşlanan insanların neden ölmesinin istendiği halk anlatılarındaki şekilleriyle ifade edilmektedir. Anlatılarda yaşlıların geleneklere bağlı olarak öldürülmesi, bir süre sonra bir kişinin bu geleneğe açık ya da gizli şekilde karşı gelerek sürekliliği etkilemesi, yaşlıların öldürülmesi geleneğinin ortadan kalkmasındaki rolü ele alınmaktadır. Bireyin öldürmeye dair eğilimleri, halkın bu eğilimlerdeki rolü, yaşlı bireylerin geleneklere bağlı kalmak adına ölümü kabul etmesi makalede sosyal ve psikolojik açıdan analiz edilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Makale, dünya halklarının ve özelinde insanın düşüncesinin, anlatılardaki yansımalarına küçük de olsa bir ışık tutmayı amaçlamaktadır.