An old daily philosophical quotation I kept in my inbox as it somehow got stuck in my craw:

This reasoning seems so plain wrong to me. Death is the most trivial event in life. Next to the beginning of life after the most banal and animalistic pastime which is sex. And the door to death is open all life long. We can die at any time. There is nothing mysterious about physical death. Thinking about what comes after is what gives death its special aura. And of course we do not achieve death at all. Death comes to us. Like life actually. Or did you achieve life?

Behind those sentences there seems to hide a calvinistic work ethic: you should earn your death! And then as a bonus death is a relief for you. What a bizarre way of thinking.

On the contrary I would argue that after this often painful life we merit a painless death. What's the point in suffering just to die and disappear or whatever happens after? If medicine was only capable to reduce the pain of those dying of horrible diseases and wounds medicine already would be worth it.