Death and Dying

The Unknown Guest
by Maurice Maeterlinck
My Essay on Death led me to make a conscientious enquiry into the present position of the great mystery, an enquiry which I have endeavoured to render as complete as possible. I had hoped that a single volume would be able to contain the result of these

Why Is It So Hard to Die?
Death
by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.
Dying is an integral part of life, as natural and predictable as being born. But whereas birth is cause for celebration, death has become a dreaded and unspeakable issue to be avoided by every means possible in our modern society.

The Conquest of Fear
by Basil King
After all, the conquest of fear is largely a question of vitality. Those who have most life are most fearless. The main question is as to the source from which an increase of life is to be obtained.

The Creators, Part 2
The Book Of Eulogies
by Phyllis Theroux
Again we in the mystery of life are brought face-to-face with the mystery of death. A great man, a great American, is dead before us, and we have met to pay a tribute to his greatness and to his worth. His fame is secure.

Wilderness
Body Brokers: Inside America's Underground Trade in Human Remains
by Annie Cheney
Joyce Zamazanuk knew that her son was dying. She knew it when the nurses quietly wheeled Jim to a private room on the seventh floor of the hospital in San Diego. His new room had a bed, a metal chair, and an oxygen tube, but little else.

Cancer: Loss, Grief, and Bereavement
by National Cancer Institute
People cope with the loss of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death.

We Have No Language
Finding Hope When a Child Dies
by Sukie Miller, Ph.D.
When your husband dies, you become a widow. When your wife dies, a widower. Children who lose their parents are called orphans. But we have no name for the parent who loses a child, nor for the brothers and sisters of a child who dies, nor for the others

Human Nature and the Heroic
The Denial of Death
by Ernest Becker, Ph.D.
In times such as ours there is a great pressure to come tip with concepts that help men understand their dilemma; there is an urge toward vital ideas, toward a simplification of needless intellectual complexity.

The Most Difficult Decision
Final Exit : The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying
by Derek Humphry
This is the scenario: You are terminally ill, all medical treatments acceptable to you have been exhausted, and the suffering in its different forms is unbearable. Because the illness is serious, you recognize that your life is drawing to a close.

Introduction
The Empty Room
by Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn
The movie The Big Chill begins with the death of a character you never meet, except for a few shots of his body being dressed for burial. As it turns out, this faceless individual is instrumental to the plot.

Chapter 1
The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky
by Ken Dornstein
In this stunning, emotionally charged memoir, Ken Dornstein interweaves the moving story of his own coming-of-age with the promise of greatness his brother never lived to fulfill. The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky is a heartbreaking but profoundly hopeful

Introduction, Part 2
Morrie: In His Own Words
by Morrie Schwartz
Morrie made it to New York's tuition-free City College. Turned down for military service in World War II because of a punctured eardrum, he decided to apply to graduate school. He was torn between sociology and psychology.

The Creators, Part 4
The Book Of Eulogies
by Phyllis Theroux
Bernardine Connelly is a short-story writer and novelist. My name is Bernardine Connelly, and I was one of John's students during his last semester at Yale. John was a great and a passionate teacher.

The Creators, Part 3
The Book Of Eulogies
by Phyllis Theroux
Now Flannery is dead and I will write her name with honor, with love for the great slashing innocence of that dry-eyed irony that could keep looking the South in the face without bleeding or even sobbing.

Ecstatic Journeys
Experiencing the Next World Now
by Michael Grosso, Ph.D.
The discovery of the worm in the apple of my existence led, as I said, to my waking up, a heightened savoring of life. And I felt driven to discover something More, something Greater.

The Collapse
A Life That Matters
by Mary Schindler, Robert Schindler, Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo, Bobby Schindler
The phone call woke us. I watched my husband, Bob, stumble to the living room of our small condo, a matter of fifteen steps, where he picked up the receiver. It was around 5:30 a.m., February 25, 1990. Calls at that hour could only mean bad news.

Regret and Denial
The End Is Just the Beginning
by Arlene Churn, Ph.D.
My mother! She was my personal possession. I would never have another mother - only one biological mother per lifetime - and mine was gone, suddenly, at the age of fifty-six, the result of a medical mishap.

Palliative Care: Improving Quality of Life on the Way to Death
by National Institute of Health
Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life for patients near the end of their lives. It involves not only medications to relieve pain, but also a team approach to provide comfort and support that involves family, friends and health care providers

The First Night
Embraced by the Light
by Betty J. Eadie
Something was wrong. My husband, Joe, had left my hospital room only a few minutes before, but already a foreboding feeling was enveloping me. I would be alone through the night, alone on the eve of one of my most frightening challenges.

The First Night, Part 2
Embraced by the Light
by Betty J. Eadie
I can still remember details of that first school building with its gigantic brick walls and dark, cold rooms. A chain-link fence separated the boys' dormitory from the girls', and another fence ran along the perimeter of the school.