Year: 1985 Source: Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, v.15, no.3, (Fall 1985), p.196-199 SIEC No: 19860408

A number of recent theorists, all proceeding on the assumption that there is no afterlife, argue that the notion of one’s own death defies comphrehension in ways that have important implications. Some argue this “ineffability” of death precludes a rational decision to die. The author maintains that it makes the notion of our own death unintelligible to each of us. In this paper, these arguments are criticized. It is maintained that death is not so inscrutable as these theorists claim.