Mortals Quotes

“But mostly we want the suicidal, at least those who plan to die for existential reasons, to see that these great thinkers didn’t stop thinking at the point of killing God. Being mortal was not the end of the story. They continued to explore the implications of the existential givens, each concluding that life was very much worth living. They argued that we should celebrate life—rejoice in the freedom to build meaning and create our own essence. Life doesn’t end by accepting our mortality or our simple animal nature. In fact, the opposite is true. Acceptance is the beginning of writing one’s own personalised, and never to be repeated, story.”
― Rachel E. Menzies, Mortals: How the fear of death shaped human society

“Death will come for us all and yet medicine still sees it as a defeat. No wonder that legal physician-assisted suicide has caused such an uproar within medical circles. Research has shown that even in jurisdictions where it is legal, confusion about its ethics, processes and procedures abound. Why? Because physician-assisted suicide allies the doctor with their enemy, namely death. Health professionals generally don’t seem to have the training and skills to assist in the dying process and most don’t appear to want them. Research has shown a strong connection between the death attitudes of health professionals and the quality of end-of-life care that they provide. For example, nurses low in death acceptance tend to have negative attitudes towards end-of-life care and cultivate poorer relationships with terminal patients. Death anxiety among healthcare providers negatively affects their attitudes towards family members of the dying. Further, death anxiety has been shown to stop relevant health professionals from initiating discussions about advance care directives. This, of course, makes it extremely difficult to ensure that the wishes of the dying are adhered to when the moment comes.”
― Rachel E. Menzies, Mortals: How the fear of death shaped human society

“In one large Australian study 60 per cent of adolescents indicated that the common items of the death and danger subscale of the FSSC-R[Fear Survey Schedule for Children] caused them considerable distress and reduced their enjoyment of daily activities.

Pg 9”
― Rachel E. Menzies, Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society