Rhetoric of Death and Dying

This chapter explores how language shapes our understanding and experience of mortality. It introduces key vocabulary such as perimortem rhetoric, which describes the indirect language used to talk about death. The chapter highlights how euphemisms soften the emotional impact, manage social discomfort, and frame death culturally. Additionally, it explains how historically, attitudes toward death have shifted, but some vestiges remain with us. The Medieval era saw death as familiar, while the Victorian era sentimentalized it. In this modern era, however, death has been medicalized and privatized, which impacts end-of-life care, where clinical language can overshadow emotional and existential needs. The chapter further examines diverse mourning rituals and practices across cultures and religions, touches upon complexities of grief, and considers ethical implications and the role of critical media literacy and patient voices in counterbalancing dominant narratives. The chapter concludes with special considerations for designers of end-of-life communication tools.