Place of Death and Dying: Introduction

The subject of death is of a considerable interest to all of us, as it has been since the beginning of civilization. However, the place of dying has seldom been studied in the field of environmental gerontology. The concept of aging in place is often explored in the field, but the discussion normally stops short of the last stages as if aging in place is a condition that never ends. Still, dying is part of the inevitability of aging. And even though a number of scientists and statisticians argue whether people die of old age, there is plenty of evidence that life has its natural, inherent limits. Clearly, intrinsic physical developments associated with aging inevitably cause an individual to become more vulnerable to mortality, which “ends in all cases we know of, in death” (Ehrenreich, 2018, p. xv). Even the most successful aging process eventually involves accumulation of disabilities as a result of the ongoing conflict at the cellular level of our bodies. Sadly, “successful” aging is an ideal that hardly accommodates the realities of decline and death (Ehrenreich, 2018). Conforming to the modern demographic pattern, the majority of people in the Western society reach old age, and consequently they are destined to die of one of its ravages. No matter how good our medical care or our exercise and hygienic regimens are, our ability to control the biological continuum between “normal” aging and disease is very limited. We are all susceptible to chronic diseases and death (Cole, 1992), as the paradoxical nature of aging and death discloses.