HSRV 321 - Thanatology: Death and Dying

Credits: (3)
This course develops the social and cultural sources of our hopes, values and fears toward matters of dying and death. Beginning with historical and cross-cultural analyses of death orientations, the course proceeds to sociologically develop the role of religion, philosophy, psychology, science, politics and medicine in shaping our orientations toward war, reproductive issues, suicide, environmental destruction, organ transplants, euthanasia, funeral ritual and capital punishment. It concludes with analyses of the experiences of those who die and those who survive, including Kubler-Ross’s studies of the stages of death, the out-of-body sensations reported by those surviving clinical death, and the experiences associated with grief and bereavement. It is an introduction to Thanatology, the social science of death and dying.