Death affects everyone, but it can be difficult to have a conversation about it. Death: A Reader is a way to begin that conversation, even if just with yourself. The book’s goal is to compile different ideas about death, and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. Each chapter focuses on a different answer to the deceptively simple prompt “Death is…” and highlights the writing of several authors—secular and religious, ancient and modern, from European and non-European traditions—who have written about the chosen aspect of death.
Part one of Death: A Reader focuses on how death is defined. For example, is death marked by physical disintegration or psychological process? Is death an end, or is the dead person reincarnated or resurrected? How about immortality due to medical intervention or continuing digital technologies? Part two focuses on the values we attach to death—whether it is or should be a positive or negative experience for the dying person, as well as those who are around them. Part three of the book focuses on the ethical decisions regarding whether or not death should be hastened by suicide, treatment refusal, and physician assisted suicide. Finally, the last section discusses death as a reflection of life.
At the end of each chapter, there are several reflection questions and a list of sources for further reading. Unlike many sets of textbook discussion questions, these tend to focus more on the reader’s personal ideas about death and plans for their own death rather than asking the reader to summarize the ideas presented in the chapter. This book is not light reading–the source texts that Dr. Cutter excerpts are frequently dry and dense. Fortunately, Dr. Cutter also describes the most important ideas of each author in her engaging and easy-to-read style. The end result would be appropriate as a textbook, but that would be worth reading by anyone who is interested in thinking deeply about how they approach death.