Books

“I know that I need to identify and say the things I am afraid of saying,” Hebb writes, and talking honestly about death is one of the most challenging and meaningful things we will do. Hebb’s on-line Death Over Dinner is a one way to navigate such conversations. This book provides a rich supply of stories, prompts, guidance, and encouragement.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich, the prolific and provocative journalist, asserts that we should stop working so hard to dodge aging and death, allow ourselves to enjoy this gift we call life and think for ourselves, prioritizing enjoyment over peer pressure, fads and propaganda when it comes to medical treatments and so-called anti-aging regimens.

We’ve all heard of Kübler-Ross and the five stages of grief. But how many have read her book? People haven’t changed since she wrote this now-classic. The stories, emotions, and challenges, addressed with her insight and humanity is well worth experiencing.

NH Options ally Eric Brungot writes: Author Lydia Dugdale is both an internist and medical ethicist. She is associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. In this book, she explores the ancient Ars Moriendi, which in its day, was a prescription on how to die well. She further writes that dying well requires us to, in turn, live well. But how does one do that? A very enjoyable and enlightening read.

Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.

Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking is one of the choices available to people as they face death. It is legal, but not widely known or understood. This new volume by leaders in the right to die movement addresses clinical, ethical, and personal issues.

After her husband’s death, Rehm committed herself to the movement for death with dignity. The former NPR radio host interviewed a range of medical professionals, family members, advocates, ethicists, and others on both sides of right to die issues.