I think that, for a bunch of people, their way of coping with death is to "accept" it as part of the natural order of things. Every time you watched parent, friend, relative, spouse, loved one, etc. die, you tell yourself that it had to happen. That's just the way things are.

Then something like this comes along. And it's an ugly reminder of the true scope of the tragedy of death: all those friends and loved ones, they didn't "just have to" die, and instead of just being a natural thing that just happens to people, their death could have been prevented but wasn't. And I think for a lot of people, it's much easier to just dismiss insert life extending technology here than it is to accept that possibility.