Death and Morality

Is death a moral evil? Here, I distinguish moral evil from other kinds of evil - perhaps religious evil or personal evil or societal evil; I'm not sure. Death may be bad because of a lot of things. (And, on the other hand, it may not be bad at all - at some point, I will push that argument). But a moral evil entails some sort of moral responsibility. A morally blameworthy action is that because a free agent chooses to take that evil action. Excluding things like murder, is death a moral evil?

Well, first let us suppose that death is evil. Then, it would be a moral evil if its "evilness" is contingent upon the actions of a free agent. This is just philosophical rambling, but let me see if I can clarify. A meteor hitting the earth causing the extinction of dinosaurs may be evil, but that occurrence is not morally evil because no human caused it to be. (Here, I confound human with free agent, but most ethics deal with human actions, and it would be somewhat far fetched to suppose a free agent alien aimed to destroy dinosaurs).

At first glance, death doesn't seem to be a moral evil. After all (excepting some circumstances), we don't intend for another person to die, much less cause it to come about. But with the advent of modern medicine, death encroaches upon this realm of moral evil. After all, in some cases, medicine can stay death's hand. Suddenly, it is within the power of a free agent - the doctor - to give or withhold medicine. We have some limited control over death, it may seem. Does it then become a moral issue?

This seems to be the case. Most would agree that, in general, doctors are morally obligated to preserve life. To do otherwise would be to commit a moral evil. Even though death may be inevitable, doctors may be charged with the moral responsibility of using all of medicine's resources to delay this inevitable evil. Are we, then, fighting a losing battle? Are we never to accept death? Are we to sacrifice everything in order to prolong life, since life is good and death is bad? Is a doctor's obligation solely moral, and if so, what does that mean? With modern medicine, our fundamental attitudes towards death have greatly changed.