Capturing Death - What One Photographer Learned on Assignment | Exposure

How do you want to die? Is really the question. You know, what is the quality of your death? What is the quality of a good death? It is the thing that we're most afraid of. You're going to die. You will be no more. Who, whoever it is that you believe you are, will end.

I think it's that loss, complete loss of identity, that terrifies people the most. One of the most powerful experiences was being with the family whose son's organs were made available for transplantation. We gathered as many people as we could find who had his major organs. Everyone gathered on the road where this young man died.

The family of this boy felt like he was still alive in the bodies of those who were surviving because of his great gift. At one point, this young man's dad put his head on the chest of the elder gentleman who now carried his son's heart. He said, "You hear that heart beating? Tell me my son is not alive."

And it just says so much about how we don't really know how to think about life and death. We won't let go. We can't let go. That's why some people want to be cryopreserved. They want another go at it. You know, they want to see if their essential me is intact if they were ever to be revived.

You know, thought and revived when these folks who had near-death experiences returned to their bodies and, you know, got up off the O table or off the floor or off the ground and went back into their lives, they were transformed forever. So I don't think just because there isn't a body of research that supports and quantifies the whatever happened in their brain and heart doesn't negate the power of what they have to say.

I'm not afraid of dying. Sometimes I think dying is a relief. All right, Mom.