ARGUMENTATIVE RESEARCH ESSAY ON KUBLER ROSS’S”ON THE FEAR OF DEATH” (Essay Sample)

"The Fear of Death" by Kubler Ross Student's Name Instructor's Name Institutional Affiliation Course Date "The Fear of Death" by Kubler Ross Death has always been perceived as a lousy phenomenon since it involves losing irreplaceable loved ones. For this reason, the perception that anyone could lose a relative or a friend brings about mixed reactions; people live in denial and with the hope that death does not strike again. But since death is guaranteed for everyone, human beings have no authority over it, and they tend to feel the need to accept it as it occurs. In "The Fear of Death" by Kubler Ross, there is an argument about how people fear death and the basis on which this fear is built. According to the author, the fear of death has always advanced with technological advancements. The main argument by Ross is that technological advancements lead to increased fear of death due to varying expectations and narratives. In the current society, people everyone believe they are far from dying, and therefore, even in pain and illness, they all have hope for recovery. This type of belief forms the basis for denial and makes everyone not believe that they are about to die. The author implies that death is not perceived even in the unconscious mind since a normal person does not believe they can die at any time. A significant aspect is that humans try to keep off anything that could cause harm since it is believed to be evil. In that case, death is also considered evil despite being compulsory. According to Kubler, human beings are unaware of their fear of death. It just seems to appear naturally, and any thought of death seems devastating because it leads one to wonder what could happen if death strikes. Significantly, Kubler states that death was not as feared in the olden days as it is in current society. She gives an example of a man in her town who fell from a tree and requested to die in his home. He died comfortably after bidding everyone goodbye. In contrast, a case of a modern man with a particular illness is given, where the patient is rushed to a noisy hospital in a noisy ambulance. Everyone in the hospital is in a rush to attend to the patient, who might even be admitted to the intensive care unit if in critical condition. The patient and his relatives waggle in agony while praying that he recovers. Even if he remains in the intensive care unit and dies after three months, no one wants to believe it because they are in denial and afraid of death. This persistent fear of death in the current society could be attributed to people's many ambitions and plans. Therefore, no one wants to die before they can accomplish their goals or enjoy their wealth. Also, technological advancements such as life-saving machines in hospitals are other reasons people fear death because they believe life could be prolonged to achieve the desired life expectancy for everyone. Since most people still believe that the global life expectancy should be 70 years, they term any death before that age limit as premature, regardless of the accomplishments of the deceased. Kubler believes that terminal care is a depersonalized approach meant to enable people to cope with anxieties since it prolongs suffering for the patient and family members. For instance, technological advancements in the health sector have led to the development of life support machines such as the intensive care unit. These machines are utilized to prolong life for terminally ill patients. According to Clark (1999), prolonging life sometimes tends to give false hopes to the patients and their relatives. David Clark was an archaeologist and an academician who studied processual archaeology. For instance, when a family organizes to have a terminally ill patient under a life-support machine, they are high on hopes that the patient will recover, and any thoughts of death are rebuked. Therefore, the more hope people have in technology to save lives, the more fear of death they have due to high expectations that cause denial. Consequently, significant aspects are associated with the fear of death, including terminal illnesses, dying stages, and grief. These factors are sequential since terminal illness brings about anxiety among patients and relatives while there is the development of strategies to save a person's life. Upon realization that a patient is terminally ill, they receive end-of-life care to enable them to live longer, regardless of whether it is months, days, or hours. On the onset of a terminal illness and eh realization of chances for death, there is the development of stages of death such as anger, bargaining, depression, denial, and acceptance (Kessler, 2011). These stages sometimes could prepare a person to die, enabling relatives to accept the situation. Patients who are terminally ill are most likely first to experience depression since they are worried about their next life. According to Tyrrell et al. (2020), depression kicks in mainly due to denial, where a person is not ready to die, and they do not want to accept reality. This is also a common issue among relatives and close friends since they always have hopes of the patients recovering at any time. Bargaining is also a significant stage, and it occurs due to denial. This happens when a person dies, and the people close to the patient tend to live, questioning why it happened and why they had to lose that specific person. After this stage comes to the acceptance stage, where people accept the reality that death has occurred and there is nothing to change about it rather than accept and move on. Acceptance could also happen before the patient dies when the patient and close relatives agree that one could eventually die. At this point, euthanasia becomes an option to prevent the family and the patient from further suffering. Ultimately, Kubler's arguments about the f...