what dreams may come

Reading an entry in a nameless blog has sparked an interest relating to my previous post on bioethics. It has come to my attention that there are some in the medical profession that deem certain ways to die as "dignified"and "undignified." Is it just me, or is there a major problem with us labeling death this way, or labeling death at all for that matter?
Who is anyone to say that if a person is kept alive artificially for years but is then taken off life support they will die an "undignified" death? And while if a doctor stands by a DNR, providing only chest compressions and using limited cardiac medications with an IV, and the patient passes away in this situation, is this apparently a "dignified" death. Or how about this-- a patient has a so-called palliative treatment where all pharmaceutical treatment is stopped with the exception of a morphine dosage, amped up to "kill the pain" as it progressively worsens. My question here would be: what then causes death but liver failure as the body makes its last attempt to detoxify near-lethal doses of morphine? Oh, but apparently this method too is considered a "dignified death."
I can't deny this labeling of death has always been done through different means in religion, literature, history, and maybe even in our own minds we've imagined scenarios we deem more acceptable or appropriate than others. Still it seems outrageous to label the ways to die. Because, if we're going to be on that page, let us then, for we might as well, nominate the most morbid candidate for high school prom queen.
Must society be so quick to slap labels on everything? Can't we just let death be what it is? Society deems it a vicious haunting of the living as an unavoidable end to our current existence. People fear it at first, but then cannot wait for it to come? Yet the intuitive and sensible thing to do is to live honorably while we are given time, and then for what ensues, what dreams may come... we cannot know, but must have faith in.
k