Most of us work hard throughout our lives to improve our Quality of Life (QoL), but I wonder how many of us actively work towards improving our Quality of Dying and Death (QoDD).

As per Google definition” QoL means “the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group”.

Whereas the general meaning of QoDD as per Google is “the degree to which a person’s preferences for dying and the moment of death agree with observations of how the person actually died, as reported by others”.

While there are different measurement scales to evaluate QoL and QoDD, the larger point of debate is; Is Quality of Life more important or Quality of Death?

Since dying and death is not a cocktail party discussion hence most people and communities shy away from talking about this subject, I guess it’s natural.

An interesting point of reality is, most people who have faced near death experience, somehow their outlook in life changes after such experience. 

Near death experience people who were either depressed, lost in life or living without any aim or motivation in life, come back to life with a renewed sense of spirituality and a sense of purpose.

Does the experience of dying rings as a wake-up call that there is more to life than simply living like zombies?

As children, many of us are taught about good and bad deeds and the eventual appraisal by the higher power. Probably in a way it is like the carrot and stick story. I guess the fear of being reprimanded after death is something which keeps most of humanity under control.

Coming back to the Quality of Dying and Death, I feel it is an important aspect of living. No one wants a painful death but at the same time we do not want to do anything to work towards a happy death.

In my opinion, a person who dies with a smile on his/her face has a better chance of a peaceful death and the journey towards the next phase of consciousness.

No wonder we all say – Rest in Peace (RIP).

Pankaj Mehrotra