What is natural death? I have heard people saying, he died a natural death, death by natural causes. What is natural death? That brings us to the question: what is unnatural death? If somebody dies by heart attack, kidney failure, lungs failure, or any other disfunctions of the body, we call it as natural. On the other hand, if somebody were to die in an accident, or commit suicide, it is an unnatural death.
Let me turn a bit philosophical for a few lines. One great existentialist philosopher asked this question: why don’t people commit suicide? He’s not looking for a “I want to live” answer. You will have to anyway die at 70 years or 80 years. Death is certain; why live through all these things like a postman coming every morning delivering letters, going to the grocery store for ration every day, a telephone, a house etc. All troubles are permanently solved if you commit suicide. Indirectly, this philosopher is asking simply one question: what is the purpose of life?
I do not think there are any natural deaths these days. I do not know why, but nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to live. If possible, they want to live forever. When you look at the aspirations of our ancient ancestors who lived 5,000 years ago, they were the same as ours – aiming to live forever! Pyramids are one such best example. There are no natural deaths these days; all deaths are unnatural.
Today, you go to the hospital, the doctors subject the patient to all kinds of invasive pipes through the nose, mouth, and ears. There will be a machine to make the heart function, another to work as your kidneys and yet another to show that the heart is working. Doctors are successful in briefly prolonging our suffering. We may biologically live few more days and die in an unnatural way. These doctors are the torchbearers of unnatural deaths. I pity these doctors and the patients who believe them.
Take any living thing other than humans; remove human beings from all the living and check – they all die a natural death. A pigeon, for example, when old, or when too ill, it doesn’t fly. It simply sits in a corner with half-closed eyes and head tucked in, unmoving. Except for an occasional movement, you cannot make out if the pigeon is alive. But it is actually waiting for death in a dignified and natural way. Observing it, I took some water, food, and placed it near the pigeon. It did not touch. Patiently, the pigeon continued to wait. As I began observing the pigeon, almost 35–40 hours crawled by. At the same place the pigeon stayed, unmoving. After about 40 hours, the pigeon was lying flat on the ground, a few ants were already crawling on it. In my opinion, this is the natural death.
Nobody answers the question: why don’t you commit suicide? This philosopher went on to live for 92 years, advocating this philosophy. And many of his disciples committed suicide. He could not commit suicide—if he commits, then who will convince people for suicide? Life is purposeless. Life is meaningless. Searching for purpose in life is like a blind man searching for a black cat on a dark night, which is non-existing! Let us leave this philosophy aside. I’m sure you got my point: all deaths nowadays are unnatural deaths.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, so long ago that nobody knows how long ago—people actually died at home, surrounded by their loved ones: wife, children, grandchildren, uncles, aunts. Somebody holding his hand, somebody looking into his face and crying and somebody assuring him, “Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” In that room which he had built, in the bed which he had been sleeping for years, if he breathes his last, this alone can be considered as the natural death.
In contrast, today no one dies at home. Everybody dies in hospitals, with all the tubes inserted in the body, machines humming away, nurses walking around, the unbearable hospital stench affecting sanity. From behind the oxygen mask that has been firmly placed on the mouth and nose of the patient looks into the nurse’s eyes in an imploringly bleak manner, as if to say, “Please take away all this, let me go. I cannot suffer anymore.” Who listens? Who cares? The beautiful young nurse dutifully smiles at the patient as if to say: ‘Your stay here for few more days, your suffering is money for us’. These are the kinds of unnatural deaths we face these days!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
One more superb article on death, you have aptly distinguish natural and unnatural death and explained us the correct way of – going away peacefully. Fabulous and Awesome!