Instead, such thoughts are often belittled as morbid preoccupations. But precisely the opposite is true. To remind ourselves periodically of our own mortality, rather than being morbid, can be an exercise in sanity of the best sort. To be sane, after all, is to know who you are, where you've come from, and where you're going. To be sane is to recognize your limits as well as your opportunities.
Death remains the ultimate limit.
To pretend that it will not come, or to fail to face it honestly as the ultimate personal experience, is to fail to address my destiny. Alternatively, to reflect on my death prompts a sense of perspective on what is important to do now, how to set my priorities in ways that matter, how to live today in a way that is authentic. The second irony remains a puzzle to me. A number of studies suggest that religious believers, as one would expect, tend to express greater resistance than the secular public to the idea of legalizing physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. However, many religious persons also tend to insist on life-sustaining treatment, even past the point of any plausible benefits.