Over a period of almost 10 years, the work of the Project on Death in America (PDIA) played a formative role in the advancement of end of life care in the United States. The project concerned itself with adults and children, and with interests crossing boundaries between the clinical disciplines, the social sciences, arts and humanities. PDIA engaged with the problems of resources in poor communities and marginalized groups and settings, and it attempted to foster collaboration across a range of sectors and organizations. Authored by medical sociologist David Clark, whose research career has focused on mapping, archiving and analyzing the history and development of hospice, palliative care and related end of life issues, this book examines the broad, ambitious conception of PDIA - which sought to 'transform the culture of dying in America' - and assesses PDIA's contribution to the development of the palliative care field and to wider debates about end of life care within American society. Chapters consider key issues and topics tackled by PDIA grantees which include: explorations of the meanings of death in contemporary American culture; the varying experiences of care at the end of life (in different settings, among different social and ethnic groups); the innovations in service development and clinical practice that have occurred in the US in response to a growing awareness of and debate about end of life issues; the emerging evidence base for palliative and end of life care in the US; the maturation of a field of academic and clinical specialization; the policy and legal issues that have shaped development, including the ethical debate about assisted suicide and the Oregon experience; the opportunities and barriers that have been encountered; and the prospects for future development. A final chapter captures developments and milestones in the field since PDIA closed in 2003, and some of the challenges going forward.

Transforming the Culture of Dying assesses the establishment of the Project on Death in America and evaluates its the contributions to the development of the palliative care field and end of life care in American society.

Deconstructing Death deals with some of the most recent changes and transformations within the realms of death, dying, bereavement, and care in contemporary Nordic countries. The book deals with some of the major - as well as some of the less conspicuous - changes in the cultural and social engagement with the phenomenon of death. Among the themes touched upon are: organ transplantation, death education, communication with the dead, changes in commemorative rituals, mourning practices on the internet, parental responses to children's suicide, death control, the practice and ethics of end-of-life care, and the lonely death. Deconstructing Death contains contributions written by researchers and practitioners from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, with professional and academic backgrounds within areas such as sociology, anthropology, religious studies, and palliative care.

Death Across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures, explores death practices and beliefs, before and after death, around the non-Western world. It includes chapters on countries in Africa, Asia, South America, as well as indigenous people in Australia and North America. These chapters address changes in death rituals and beliefs, medicalization and the industry of death, and the different ways cultures mediate the impacts of modernity. Comparative studies with the west and among countries are included. This book brings together global research conducted by anthropologists, social scientists and scholars who work closely with individuals from the cultures they are writing about.

Over almost 10 years, the work of the Project on Death in America (PDIA) played a formative role in the advancement of end-of-life care in the US. The project concerned itself with adults and children, and with interests crossing boundaries between the clinical disciplines, the social sciences, arts, and humanities. PDIA engaged with the problems of resources in poor communities and marginalized groups and settings, and it attempted to foster collaboration across a range of sectors and organisations. This book examines the broad, ambitious conception of PDIA and assesses PDIA's contribution to the development of the palliative care field and to wider debates about end-of-life care within American society.

For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. 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.

Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the center of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Die Wise is for those who will fail to live forever. Dying well, Jenkinson writes, is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. Die Wise dreams such a dream, and plots such an uprising. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our capacity for a village-mindedness, or breaks it. Table of Contents The Ordeal of a Managed Death Stealing Meaning from Dying The Tyrant Hope The Quality of Life Yes, But Not Like This The Work So Who Are the Dying to You? Dying Facing Home What Dying Asks of Us All Kids Ah, My Friend the Enemy

Examines how Day of the Dead celebrations among America's Latino communities have changed throughout history, discussing how the traditional celebration has been influenced by mass media, consumer culture, and globalization.

In this introductory text on thanatology, Alan Kemp continues to take on the central question of mortality: the centrality of death coupled with the denial of death in the human experience. Drawing from the work of Ernest Becker, Death, Dying, and Bereavement in a Changing World provides a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach to the study of death, putting extra emphasis on the how death takes place in a rapidly changing world. This new, second edition includes the most up-to-date research, data, and figures related to death and dying. New research on the alternative death movement, natural disaster-related deaths, and cannabis as a form of treatment for life-threatening illnesses, and updated research on physician-assisted suicide, as well as on grief as it relates to the DSM-5 have been added.

The phrase, ""the Culture of Death"", is bandied about as a catch-all term that covers abortion, euthanasia and other attacks on the sanctity of life. In Architects of the Culture of Death, authors Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker expose the Culture of Death as an intentional and malevolent ideology promoted by influential thinkers who specifically attack Christian morality's core belief in the sanctity of human life and the existence of man's immortal soul. In scholarly, yet reader-friendly prose, DeMarco and Wiker examine the roots of the Culture of Death by introducing 23 of its architects, including Ayn Rand, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Jack Kevorkian, and Peter Singer. Still, this is not a book without hope. If the Culture of Death rests on a fragmented view of the person and an eclipse of God, the future of the Culture of Life relies on an understanding and restoration of the human being as a person, and the rediscovery of a benevolent God. The personalism of John Paul II is an illuminating thread that runs through Architects, serving as a hopeful antidote.