Thanatology

Thanatology is the study of usually qualitative circumstances surrounding human death and grief surrounding death. The study develops around the idea that life is so potentially valuable that the process of dying is worthy of study and, when possible, improvement.

Thanotology involves research about aging, AIDS, art, family problemss, counseling, euthanasia, funerals, grief, history, hospice care, life-threatening diseases, medical ethics, pain, poetry, pharmacology, stress, suicide, violence, war, wills and grave markers.

Thanatology does not directly explore the meaning of death, a topic as medically irrelevant as is the meaning of life. Some medical texts refer to inquiries of the meaning of life and death as absurd and futile. Nonetheless, thanatology explores the meaning of death to individuals, communities or cultures.