This article explores the issues which appear from the perspectives of Buddhism, process theism, and what has come to be called open theism. Many believes' that human life also has a goal, an inherent telos. The conflation of the two notions in the expression, the end of human life, is possible because, according to both Buddhism and Christianity, the telos of human existence is fully achieved, if at all, only in the ending of a person's life. Needless to say, however, the conceptions of this telos differ radically in the two faiths. In each case we will begin with a brief discussion of the metaphysical nature postulated for human persons, followed by an account of the transition to the final state in which the telos is achieved, and of the value-perspectives inherent in the designation of such an end for human life.
