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We often judge that death is bad for the person who dies - that my death, for instance, will be bad for me when it occurs. It is not easy, however, to explain, justify, or defend this judgment. As Epicurus argued more than 2000 years ago, death is 'nothing to us' because 'when we exist death is not present, and when death is present we do not exist.' (Letter to Menoeceus, 124-125)
Despite the Epicurean view, common sense leads us to think death is bad for the person who dies for the reason that death deprives that person of any future goods the person could or would have experienced if she hadn't died. One variation of this argument is captured by Bernard Williams whose view is that death is bad when it deprives us of the opportunity to satisfy categorical desires and life-projects - those desires and projects for the sake of which we want to continue living. Put differently, this is the view that death is bad when it ruins our lives by interrupting what gives those lives meaning.
This view has some intuitive appeal. Indeed, what else could ruin a life to the same extent? Whatever else might interrupt my projects and stand in the way of my desires - tragic accidents, bad luck, failed relationships, whatever - nothing puts an end to my pursuits and nothing thwarts the satisfaction of my desires to the same extent as death puts an end to my pursuits and thwarts my desires. In this contest, death wins by ending me.
Despite its intuitive appeal, this view has the odd consequence that we protect ourselves from the harm of death if only we avoid beginning any project that could be interrupted and any desire that might go unsatisfied. Death cannot interrupt my projects if I have none. Death cannot thwart the satisfaction of my desires if I have none. More generally, death cannot deprive me of any future goods if I live my life in such a way as to ensure that I have nothing to lose. And, to be sure, I have nothing to lose if I have nothing: no projects, no desires, no interests, no relationships,...