In this blog post, we will explore what direction we should choose in a time when health is a duty and death is avoided.
Since ancient times, death has been regarded as both a source of fear and a destiny for humans. Ancient people accepted death as the will of God and had a sense of awe for the world after death. However, with the advent of the Middle Ages, religious perspectives began to shift significantly. Clergy declared that death was not merely an end but a new beginning where one could receive divine salvation. As a result, people gradually began to accept death with composure, replacing fear with anticipation of divine grace. This way of thinking became deeply ingrained in daily life throughout the Middle Ages.
As time passed and the Renaissance and Enlightenment arrived, the age of God slowly came to an end, and a human-centered way of thinking took root. Death now became a personal issue. Each individual’s life became important, and personal death was no longer seen as God’s will but as one’s own destiny. As individualism spread, people became more focused on their own lives and deaths, bringing about major changes throughout society.
However, this individualism did not last long. With the advent of the Romantic era, people began to place greater value on love and emotion. Now, people no longer simply feared their own death, but also feared the death of their loved ones. Romantics loved the beauty of nature, music, and art, and this love eventually extended to relationships between people. This gave rise to a new perception of death. Not only my death, but also your death was recognized as an event that brings deep sorrow to me.
So how do we view death in modern society? The dazzling advances in science and medicine have once again changed our perception of death. Advances in medical technology have given us ways to avoid death or at least delay it. With longer life expectancy and the ability to prevent and treat diseases, death is no longer seen as an inevitable fate, but rather as a problem that can be controlled. People no longer view death as something to be feared, but rather as something to be avoided by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
In modern society, information about health is abundant. We can easily obtain information about health from TV educational programs, online articles, and even social media. Information that was once only available to medical professionals is now accessible to everyone. We acquire new knowledge about health every day and use it to manage ourselves. However, in this flood of information, we are easily overwhelmed by health obsessions.
Doctors encourage us to maintain our health for a better life, but sometimes these recommendations can feel like a burden. When my grandmother was ill, one of the things I heard most often at the hospital was, “I should just die!” This statement must have been filled with complex emotions. Feelings of guilt toward her family, financial burdens, and despair over her endless suffering must have all come together.
While in the intensive care unit, my grandmother had to endure constant pain, and in the process, she may have questioned whether life was worth continuing. In such situations, we are forced to consider how we should accept death. What does the patient truly want? Medical professionals do their best to prolong the patient’s life, but sometimes we wonder if the process itself is causing the patient additional suffering.
Modern society compels us to pursue health. Students must be healthy for their studies, working adults for their job performance, and patients to extend their lives. Whose health is this compulsion for? In modern society, health has transformed from a matter of survival into a competitive factor. To live longer and healthier lives, we must constantly manage ourselves. This can sometimes feel like our choices are being taken away from us.
Ultimately, in modern society, health has become a necessary condition not only for survival but also for maintaining social status. This signifies an era where the fear of death is no longer seen as the mere end of life but as a form of social failure. In this era where death is taboo and everyone is forced to live in a state of imposed health, what choices should we make? As we pose this question, we must once again deeply reflect on the meaning of life and death.
