Relation of First Significant Encounter with Death to Person’s Attitude towards Mortality, Death and the Imagined Afterlife

Description

The work summarizes and analyses the opinions of Latvian residents about the desired/best conditions in which to die, preparation for death and imagined afterlife; differences in these perceptions in different population groups depending on when the first experience to a significant, memorable death occurred.. National representative survey of permanent residents of Latvia aged 18-75 in October 2019, N=1012. Face-to-face interviews at the respondents' residences.. More than a tenth of the population of Latvia experienced a very early encounter with death, already at preschool age. It seems more important to these people than to others to die without pain and suffering, in sleep; they believe that man should prepare for his death. They see death as a natural, undeniable and inevitable event, without defining it as either good or bad. On the other hand, people who first encountered death only in adulthood consider death a terrible experience and avoid any contact with the topic of death. They believe in life after death - going to heaven, union with God and eternal bliss. People who have not yet had a significant, memorable death experience are very afraid of death, avoid thinking about death, and are very concerned about life after death. People who have faced death at a very early age are much more likely to believe that a person has the right to take his own life. They do not consider suicide as an incomprehensible, irrational, inexcusable act and the person who commits suicide as a coward or in any case mentally ill.. The results of the study show significant differences in opinions about death, dying and one's own mortality depending on when a person had their first significant encounter with death. Early exposure to death also greatly affects a person's attitude towards suicide, euthanasia, organ donation for transplantation or science.

Period	29 Mar 2023
Event title	RSU Research week 2023: PLACES
Event type	Conference
Conference number	3
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Rīga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International