The Myth of Natural Death in the Western World
The Myth of Natural Death in the Western World

Summary/Abstract: The myth of naturalness as for gentleness constitutes the answer of our age to death and to the specific problem of solitude of the dying person. Such a myth has been constructive, on the one hand, in the specific choices that it has been produced (in particular the idea and practice of palliative care, or also the British attempt to reappropriate the management of death); on the other hand, it contains an ambiguity and it is worth reconsidering it. While it may have been represented as a reminder to remain conscious of human transience, such a myth has also contributed to reproducing the mechanism of the delegation of the thought of death to others: the ‘operatives’, doctors, nurses, healthcare or funeral staff in general, called upon to keep up and to be trained as the vestals of a good death. The majority of our contemporaries continue to push away reflection on mortality and feel safe and warm at the thought that there will be someone who, equipped with the right specialist skills, will be able to ensure, as if it were a right, a tolerable, gentle and natural death, without physical or psychological pain, without loss of individuality and of the meaning of one’s own being.

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