Shame,Death, and Dying

This paper deals with the influence of shame on the way in which Western society, particularly North America, is coping with death and dying. From being a familiar event, death and dying have become a shameful aspect of life. Thus, this paper provides some understanding of this important transformation, and it challenges some of our present attitudes regarding death and dying. These human experiences are not the ultimate manifestation of a failure, either from a personal or a medical perspective, but the only way through which human beings acquire the fullness of life, as Christian faith reveals.