It sounds so soothing and comforting and like the recent suicide of Steve Bing by jumping from the 27th floor and splattered on the street below the press says he PASSSED AWAY. Passed Away for murder and suicide victims just strikes me as wrong. We don't refer to combat deaths as PASSING AWAY.
We say "passed away" because died is such a frightening word to some people. I say he or she died. They didn't pass away.... their life ended. Whether it begins anew in heaven or elsewhere is a matter of opinion.
I don't think it makes much of a difference. What I find offensive is when people say that someone is in a better place without regard for whether that is likely or not. If the person saying it doesn't believe in a better place, then the saying is trite, at best. While I believe in a better place, I don't believe that everyone is going to be there when they die. While I certainly wouldn't tell someone that their loved one is probably in hell, neither would I assure someone that their loved one is in a better place unless I have some reason to believe that's a possibility. Saying that someone is in a better place sort of assumes that their prior existence was pretty awful too, which may not always be the case. Saying that someone has passed on suggests that they have passed from one place to another and, since I believe that we do pass from one place to another, that doesn't offend me. Then again, I'm not sure whether we pass immediately to that other place, wherever it might be, or if we have to wait until Christ returns. But, the time of a person's death probably isn't the right time to deal with those questions.
I think "in a better place" is appropriate sometimes when the deceased suffered a long time with what finally killed them. My sister-in-law's sister eventually died from the complications of diabetes, having feet amputated and all, and suffered no more after she died.
I want you delivering my eulogy. "We are gathered here to say Goodbye, John, and Hello, worm food. So, who wants to go fishing???"