"Book Details An Element in the Cycle of Life--Death"

Because our own death lies just an instant away, it has no reality for us. Even the demise of a family member or a loved one seems an impossibility until it happens, and then, we are left with a near-irreconcilable loss. It’s only after years of grief that solace finally softens the pain. “How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter”, by Sherwin Nuland helps us come to an understanding of the emotional and physical realities of dying.

 The author, a physician, explains in a methodical and graphic manner what happens to the body during the process that leads inevitably to death. He follows the variations in the death scenario through the six most common causes, including cancer, heart attack, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, accident, and stroke. He also discusses death from old age, suicide, and murder. He reviews what death means to the doctor, patient, nurse, administrator, and family.

Why read a book like this? Well, the power of this “National Book Award” winning book is in its intensely personal depictions. As we cannot conceive of the reality of our own death, Nuland leads us through various scenarios in which we might die. Rather than denying the process, we follow Nuland’s description of how our body and mind will shut down. We are given a glimpse of how it is to die.

Throughout his book, Nuland repeats his twofold message: first, very few will “die with dignity”, so it behooves us to lead a productive and honorable life; and, secondly, physicians, patients, and families should behave appropriately to allow nature to take its course instead of treating death as the enemy to be staved off at all cost. Only then, Nuland says, will it be possible for us to die in the “best” possible way—in relative comfort and in the company of those we love and who love us.

In a time when medical advances seem to promise the possibility of eternal life, Nuland’s book concludes with the reminder that death continues to be a human condition. If and only when we become gods will we be able to change the natural progression of our human existence.

Until then, according to Nuland, all attempts to prolong life are futile as there is an order in life where the young replace the old and the strong replace the weak. Death is simply an event in the sequence of nature’s ongoing rhythms. At the time of the end of our body’s life, the persona (or spirit, or whatever you wish to call it) will return to the same state of non-earthly existence from which it emerged at conception.