I started this page at the request of someone who wanted a particular story and now realize that it's not easy to find good stories of (or articles about) death and dying on the Web. I'll add more links as I find them -- and please tell me about any that you think I should consider.
~~ Pat McNees

---

End-of-life decision-making
Resources for when terminal or life-threatening illness requires decisions about what individuals, families, and professional caregivers should do -- posted by the Association for Death Education and Counseling:
• The Art of Dying: A Mind-Body Transformation by Danielle Schroeder
• When to Refer to Hospice by Lisa Wayman
• Compassion & Choices: Choice and Care at the End of Life, including the blog entry A dying patient is not a battlefield (by Theresa Brown)
• Engage with Grace and the One Slide Project. To help ensure that all of us--and the people we care for--can end our lives in the same purposeful way we lived them. • Watch the Engage with Grace Story (Video, Za's Story) • Download the One Slide (PDF), which asks five basic questions, more specific than the Five Wishes below:
* "On a scale of 1 to 5, where do you fall on this continuum (with 1 being "let me die without medical intervention" and 5 being "Don't give up on me no matter what, try any proven and unproven interventon possible").
* Is there were a choice, would you prefer to die at home, or in a hospital?
* Could a loved one correctly describe how you'd like to be treated in the case of a terminal illness?
* Is there someone you trust whom you've appointed to advocate on your behalf when the time is near?
* Have you completed any of the following: written a living will, appointed a health care power of attorney, or competed an advance directive?"
• Five Wishes lets your family and doctors know:
* Who you want to make health care decisions for you when you can't make them.
* The kind of medical treatment you want or don't want.
* How comfortable you want to be.
* How you want people to treat you.
* What you want your loved ones to know.

---

Ask Judy. Do you, or someone you care about, know someone who is dying? Each Wednesday Judy Bachrach answers your questions or offers advice to the dying and those who care about them.

Death Flicks. Celebrating Life Before Death in Short (and Shorter) Films. (Life Before Death site)

Engage with Grace and the One Slide Project. To help ensure that all of us--and the people we care for--can end our lives in the same purposeful way we lived them. • Watch the Engage with Grace Story (Video, Za's Story) • Download the One Slide (PDF)

For me to have a good day, somebody must die (Del Stone, Open Salon, on writing about death for a newspaper website and feeling guilty about his own gallows humor)

Incapacitated, Alone and Treated to Death (Joseph Sacco, NY Times, 10-6-08)

In death, a promise for the future. As her world diminished, Elizabeth Uyehara signed her body over to researchers to help unravel the mystery of Lou Gehrig's disease. (Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 8-28-10, on the course of Uyehara's ALS and on what happens when organs are donated for science)

Last Words (famous last words, famous epitaphs, illuminations, famous farewells, and stories of last stands)

Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully - A Journey with Cancer and Beyond by Nancy Manahan and Becky Bohan (how Diane Manahan chose to live life fully at the end and die at home)

• Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa (about a cat who senses death and stays to comfort the dying, but also about Alzheimer's and geriatric care and nursing homes and being there, at the end of life)

Months to Live. A New York Times series, examining the promises and challenges of extending, or ending, the lives of very ill patients. Includes Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care by Reed Abelson, 12-22-09; Fellow Inmates Ease Pain of Dying in Jail by John Leland, 10-17-09; Sisters Face Death With Dignity and Reverence by Jane Gross, 7-8-09 (a group of convent sisters rely on social networks rather than aggressive medical care);Fighting for a Last Chance at Life, by Amy Harmon, 5-16-09 (A family’s campaign for access to an unproven drug (Iplex, for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease) highlights the challenges terminally ill patients face in the search for treatment; and At the End, Offering Not a Cure but Comfort (Anemona Hartocollis, 8-20-09 on what palliative care specialists do during patients' last months).

My friend's dying tested my atheism (read or listen to Cerise Morris, Globe & Mail, Facts & Arguments, 9-13-10)

The Quality of Death: Ranking end-of-life care across the world. According to this summary of the The Economist Intelligent Unit's white paper, the UK (where hospice originated) has led the way in developing its hospice care network and statutory involvement in end-of-life care. Indicators for the ranking include public awareness, the availability of training in palliative care, access to pain killers, and doctor- patient transparency. Canada and the U.S. tied for 9th place, after UK, Australia, New Zealand,Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, and Germany. "Death and dying are stigmatised in some cultures" (including China's). Go to the Quality of Death Index site for the full report on this first-ever global study on the quality of death across 40 countries, commissioned by the Lien Foundation.

STORE OWNERS AND BOOKSELLERS:

Get in touch if you want to stock this title. E-mail pat at patmcnees dot com (in the usual format).

This is a wonderful gift book for families experiencing a serious illness or a death in the family. Often the serious illness doesn't end in death, but elicits anxiety, sorrow, and thoughts about the possibility of death.

"For those who face the lonely reality of death, this book provides understanding and much-needed solace."
Claire Berman, author of Caring for Yourself While Caring for Your Aging Parents

---

NAES bookstore, NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda (Building 10, Room B1L101, phone 301. 496.5272)