[pavlov]

Fair point. Everybody hopes they can go swiftly into the good night.

Isn't the fearsome part of dying just the pain and sickness though? Those things can exist as a chronic state that doesn't lead to death, so I'm not sure it's dying that one should be afraid of...

In some countries like Belgium, unbearable pain that doesn't lead to death is sufficient cause for an individual to be granted assisted suicide performed by medical professionals.

[mikeash]

That's a good point, the two don't have to be linked. I always think of them together, I imagine because so I've seen so many people die slowly, and relatively few end up with horrible chronic afflictions that still let them survive for a long time.