Once one gets past the initial inclination to avoid the topic, the end of life is a subject of fascinating and important stories, ideas and explorations. We've collected a few videos, audios and articles that we find particularly interesting. If you're aware of a story you'd like to share, let us know.
Peter Saul asks us to think about the end of our lives - and to question against the modern model of slow, intubated death in a hospital.These guidelines apply to both adult and pediatric patients. There are several types of advance medical directives (documents in which a patient identifies the treatment to be withheld in the event the patient is unable to communicate or participate in medical treatment decisions).At a Death Cafe, people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink coffee and discuss death. Their objective is "to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives." A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It's a discussion group rather than a grief support group or counseling session.Medical Futility Blog
Life That Doesn't End with Death, by Kelli Swazey
Letter to the Editor: The Denver Post, April 19, 2020
by Dr. John Lobitz, Board President for Tomorrow’s Choices, Re: ”Patient care rules decided,”
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Online:
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Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel often are not permitted to honor requests to withhold resuscitation at the end of life, particularly if there is no written do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order.Thinking about death is frightening, but planning ahead is practical and leaves more room for peace of mind in our final days. Judy MacDonald Johnston shares five practices for planning a good end of life.Books
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty
That Good Night, Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour,by Sunita Puri
Changing the Way We Die
by Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel
Let's Talk About Dying, by Peter Saul
A Final Farewell: Your Personal Guide to End-of-Life Issues
by Nancy Lawson
Death Cafes
“Am I Dying?” The honest answer, by Matthew O'Reilly
O’Reilly describes what happens next when a gravely hurt patient asks him: “Am I going to die?”
The federal government has spent billions helping doctors and hospitals digitize patients lives, but there are still many holes in our electronic records including a big one: We can't list end-of-life wishes.Prepare for the End of Life, by Judy MacDonald Johnston
We turn to doctors to save our lives. But when it comes to the critical question of what to do when death is at hand, there seems to be a gap between what we want doctors to do for us, and what doctors want done for themselves.Frontline explores the intersection of life, death, medicine and what matters in the end. The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death, by Stephen Cave
Philosopher Stephen Cave begins with a dark but compelling question: When did you first realize you were going to die?
Websites
No CPR Bracelets
Video
The Conversation Project -
The Conversation Project is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.
Funeral Consumer Society of Colorado -
Our mission is to inform and educate consumers on significant end-of-life issues. As an affiliate member of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA), a leading national organization advocating consumer rights, we do for funeral purchases what Consumer Reports® does for products. The Society encourages its members to study options and make decisions in advance and to make a written record of their wishes, thereby sparing their survivors from having to make difficult decisions under stress.
Professor Thaddeus Mason Pope on end-of-life law and policy. A blog about medical futility, bioethics, end-of-life medicine, right to die, medical law, health law, patient rights, critical care and ICU ethics
medicalfutility.blogspot.com/2018/
What makes life worth living in the face of death, by Lucy Kalanithi
In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Doctors die, just like the rest of us. What's surprising is not how much medical care they demand, but how little.In La Crosse Wisconsin, almost everyone plans for their death. Not coincidentally, La Crosse spends less for end-of life care than any other place in the country.
In Tana Toraja, weddings and births aren't the social gatherings that knit society together. In this part of Indonesia, big, raucous funerals form the center of social life.Other
TED Talks
What is Death Like
Audio
Articles
The coronavirus pandemic highlights how much we need to have conversations about end-of-life care.Being Mortal
by Atul Gawande
Extreme Measures, Finding a Better Path to the End of Life, by Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD
The Conversation, A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care, by Angelo E. Volandes, MD
Talking about Death Won't Kill You, by Virginia Morris
Last Rights, Rescuing the End of Life from the Medical System, by Stephen P. Kiernan
When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi, MD
Before Forever After - When Conversations about Living Meet Questions about Dying, by Helena Dolny