Reading Material on end-of-life topics

Below are copies of articles in PDF format that have appeared on the Web related to end-of-life topics as well as links to additional web sites that might prove interesting and/or valuable. (After reading a PDF document, click the close box in the upper left hand corner to return to the index or use the Back button if it is available.)

PDF DOCUMENTS

Dealing with Death

• A Guide to First Steps
• A nice little chat about dying
• Being With a Dying Loved One
• Child leaves legacy on playground after cancer death
• Creating Memories of a Brief Life
• Discussing matters of life and death
• Discussions of death are fragile
• Facing the End
• Making choices about dying and death
• Life-and-death choices need to be made in advance
• Planning ahead a sensible way to face your own mortality
• Shadow Box: Common reactions to death explored
• Stop and Smell the Roses...Again?

Euthanasia

• Commentary: The Case Against Physician-Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care
• Dying man challenges doctors over right to live
• Elderly patient's death 'hurried'
• Freedom to Die?
• While I Was Sleeping
• Woman has no option to die with dignity

Funerals

• Final exams (autopsies)
• Funeral directors help with practical details of death
• Funeral etiquette

Grief

• A dying Mom's notion helps others survive
• Coping With Death
• Grieving, like dying, takes as long as it takes
• The Grief of Your Dying Loved One
• Program helps kids cope with grieving
• Returning to Work After a Loss
• Ten Common Myths & Realities About Grief

Hospice

• A Home Away From Home for Dying Children
• Hospice care helps the dying -- and their families who live on
• Hospice helps grieving families
• Hospice Visitors Raise the Level of Personal Care
• Hospice improves quality of last days
• Why I'm a hospice nurse

Hospital care

• A promise under siege
• Dying Patients Get Little Relief, Emotional Support From Staff
• One in Five Americans Die in ICU
• Patients who are dying to go home
• The tragedy of dying alone

Legal matters

• DNRs can't be used by irresponsible third parties

Personal experiences

• A prayer for the dying
• A reader's lesson in dying
• 'Death is freedom, life is a lesson'
• Dying, she wants to hear Bach
• Following a Bright Light to a Calmer Tomorrow
• Grandma Erma's last year of life documented
• In Death Watch for Stranger, Becoming a Friend to the End
• 'I was terrified of dying alone'
• Life Cycles: Pulling up old roots to let new ones grow
• Loss long before death
• One wish before dying
• Sharing Last Precious Moments
• When the time comes

Physicians' role

• Dying With Dignity
• Physicians can help family members caring for dying loved ones
• When a doctor must say the worst
• When Death Nears

Religion Topics

• A preacher reflects on life's journey
• Assisted Suicide: A Christian Choice and a New Freedom
• Catholic Hospitals Await Word on Implementing Pope's Euthanasia Remarks
• Chaplain helps dying prepare for last journey
• "Do Everything" or "Do Nothing"? (Muslim)
• Jewish view on dying, medical ethics explored
• Soul Survivor (the afterlife)
• Supporting Caregiving Families
• What is the Buddhist perspective on an afterlife?

Research

• Americans Eat Themselves To Death
• Bad Habits Faulted for One-Third of American Deaths
• End suffering, death from cancer by 2015
• For a better death
• Heart disease number one cause of death for women
• Smokers dying for a fag, survey shows
• University of Iowa Study: Emotional Aspects of Organ Donation Need Attention
• U.S. Living Longer, But More Infants Dying

Suicide

• Is Suicide Forgivable?
• School program curbs teen suicide attempts
• Suicidal Thoughts Can Be Controlled in Elderly
• Suicide -- A Preventable Tragedy
• Suicide and the Silence of the Scriptures

BOOKEND PUBLICATIONS

When children die: improving palliative and end-of-life care for children and their families / Committee on Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Children and Their Families, Board on Health Sciences Policy; Marilyn J. Field and Richard E. Behrman, editors. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, c2003.

Caring for the dying: critical issues at the edge of life / edited by Robert M. Baird & Saturate E. Rosenbaugh. Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, c2003.

Hospice and palliative care : concepts and practice [edited by] Walter B. Forman ... [et al.] Sudbury, Mass. : Jones and Bartlett, c2003.

Last rights : a Catholic perspective on end-of-life decisions / Dolores L. Christie. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2003.

What dying people want : practical wisdom for the end of life / David Kulh. New York : Public Affairs, c2002.

Hospice care for children / edited by Ann Armstrong-Dailey, Sarah Zarbock. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

Palliative care nursing : quality care to the end of life / Marianne LaPorte Matzo, Deborah Witt Sherman, editors. New York : Springer Pub., c2001.

Terminal illness : opposing viewpoints / Mary E. Williams, book editor. San Diego : Greenhaven Press, 2001.

Law at the end of life : the Supreme court and assisted suicide / edited by Carl E. Schneider. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2000.

Death attitudes and the older adult : theories, concepts, and applications / edited by Adrian Tomer. Philadelphia, PA : Brunner-Routledge, c2000.

The hospice heritage : celebrating our future / Inge B. Corless, Zeida Foster, editors. New York : Haworth Press, c1999.

End of life issues : interdisciplinary and multidimensional perspectives / Brian de Vries, editor. New York : Springer, 1999.

Living with grief at work, at school, at worship / edited by Joyce D. Davidson and Kenneth J. Doka. Washington, D.C. : Hospice Foundation of America; Philadelphia, PA : Brunner/Mazel, c1999.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide / Gerald Dworkin, R.G. Frey, Sissela Bok. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.

State initiatives in end-of-life care : policy guide for state legislators / by Dick Merritt ... [et al.] Washington, D.C. : National Conference of State Legislature, c1998.

Freedom to die : people, politics, and the right-to-die movement / Derek Humphry and Mary Clement. New York : St. Martin's Press, c1998.

A good dying : shaping health care for the last months of life / Joan K. Harrold, Joanne Lynn, editors. New York : Haworth Press, c1998.

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We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.
- May Lamberton Becker