Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot....

Ehrenreich's core philosophy holds that aging people have the right to determine their quality of life and may choose to forgo painful and generally ineffective treatments. She presents evidence that such tests as annual physicals and Pap smears have little effect in prolonging life; investigates wellness trends, including mindfulness meditation; and questions the doctrine of a harmonious "mindbody" and its supposed natural tendency to prolong life....

Addresses the issue of mortality discussing how humans universally share a fear of death and examines the theories of leading thinkers on this subject including Freud, Rank, and Kierkegaard.

The author visits with his former college professor, who gave him sound advice and guidance when he was younger. In the last months of his life, Morrie teaches Mitch abouth lessons in how to live once again.

"Vivien Bearing is an English professor with a biting wit that educates but also alienates her students. With her teaching and life both rigidly under control, Vivian would never let down her defenses, until the day comes when they are taken down for her. Diagnosed with a devastating illness, Vivian agrees to undergo a series of procedures that are brutal, extensive and experimental. For eight months her life must take an uncharted course. No longer...

A haunting meditation on mortality, grief, and loss. Perhaps no one but Kay Redfield Jamison--who combines the acute perceptions of a psychologist with a writerly elegance and passion--could bring such a delicate touch to the subject of losing a spouse to cancer. She looks back at her relationship with her husband, Richard Wyatt, a renowned scientist who battled dyslexia to become one of the foremost experts on schizophrenia. And with her characteristic...

We are called to confront the sobering fact of death--realistically, but always with the confidence that through our relationship with Christ we can conquer this final enemy.

"Advanced directives and living wills have improved our ability to dictate end-of-life care, but even these cannot guarantee that we will be allowed the dignity of a natural death. Designed by two sisters-one a doctor, one a lawyer-and drawing on their decades of experience, the five-step Compassion Protocol outlined in A Better Way of Dying offers a simple and effective framework for leaving caretakers concrete, unambiguous, and legally binding instructions...

Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University was asked to deliver a "Last Lecture" (a series designed to examine the final lessons the speaker would impart when facing their own mortality). For Randy the topic was anything but hypothetical - he had recently received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He delivered his lecture entitled: "Really achieving your childhood dreams" at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 18, 2007. Randy lost his cancer...