Death Positive Movement

People who are death positive believe that it is not morbid or taboo to speak openly about death. They see honest conversations about death & dying as the cornerstone of a healthy society.

Here’s a recent article that delves into the history of the movement. Learn about death positivity during the pandemic, in social justice movements, and about the benefits of being death positive.

1. I believe that by hiding death and dying behind closed doors we do more harm than good to our society.
2. I believe that the culture of silence around death should be broken through discussion, gatherings, art, innovation, and scholarship.
3. I believe that talking about and engaging with my inevitable death is not morbid, but displays a natural curiosity about the human condition.
4. I believe that the dead body is not dangerous, and that everyone should be empowered (should they wish to be) to be involved in care for their own dead.
5. I believe that the laws that govern death, dying and end-of-life care should ensure that a person’s wishes are honored, regardless of sexual, gender, racial or religious identity.
6. I believe that my death should be handled in a way that does not do great harm to the environment.
7. I believe that my family and friends should know my end-of-life wishes, and that I should have the necessary paperwork to back-up those wishes.
8. I believe that my open, honest advocacy around death can make a difference, and can change culture.

To be clear, death positive doesn’t mean you’re thrilled and “positive” after someone has died, Death positive means you should be given support during and after a death, including the ability to speak freely about your grief and experiences. It also does not ask that we simply “accept” death, but that we push back and engage with the systems and conditions that lead to “unacceptable” deaths resulting from violence, a lack of access to care, etc.

As with any movement, there are misunderstandings. Here is a piece dispelling some of the myths about the Death Positive Movement.

While you’re here be sure to check out our video on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Death Positive People.

From Caitlin Doughty’s 5th Anniversary post:

I’m lucky to know a number of advocates in the sex positive community. My understanding of sex positivity was, in part: “I’m fascinated by human sexuality and my own relationship to sex and I refuse to be ashamed of that interest. I was sure if there was sex positivity, there would also be death positivity. But when I did the deep dive Google search, nothing. So several years ago I asked the Order of the Good Death’s Facebook and Twitter community about why that might be. As always, you had brilliant thoughts that helped shape what the Death Positive Movement has become.

Our work at The Order is inspired by the work of anthropologist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Ernest Becker. Learn about Becker’s work and his book The Denial of Death on the Ernest Becker Foundation website.

Everyone can help by thinking and talking about death in an open, factual, and compassionate manner. We can all be working to shift our cultural and national beliefs surrounding death. These beliefs are inextricable not just from our quality of life, but our ability to access a good end of life. If we can’t discuss death we also can’t “discuss how to better the lives of those affected by it.”

As you can read in this article, the movement is about “more than just changing ourselves. It’s about breaking down barriers and causing an ideological shift in the world.”

We can also change the culture around what happens to the body after death, returning to a closer, family and community model of care. For an overview, here are two TED talks where Order founder Caitlin lays out the benefits of being present with the dead body (The Corpses that Changed my Life) and adopting green and natural burial practices (Recomposition and Conservation Burial).

In this interview, the director of the Order, Sarah Chavez, discusses the ways death positivity intersects with feminism, and its potential to help dismantle the roots of inequality, racism, and social marginalization.

Further Reading

Death positivity is being applied in all sorts of unexpected and thoughtful ways, read more here:

• Why I won’t be removing the death metaphors from my astronomy work
• Is taking care of plants the most death positive hobby?
• What Being Queer Taught Me About Death
• UK libraries become ‘death positive’ with books and art on dying
• How Death Positivity Can Help Teens 
• A Little Death Positivity In Video Games Can Be Good 
• Trauma and Teaching with the Death Positive Movement
• Death Positivity and the Vintage Lifestyle 
• How Death Positivity Helps Me Mourn the Living 
• The Women Who Want Their Corpses To Feed The Earth When They Die