The Good Death: The New American Search to Reshape the End of Life

by Marilyn Webb

The Good Death is the first full-scale examination of one of today's most complex the profound change in the way Americans think about and confront death. Drawing on more than six years of firsthand research and reporting, noted journalist Marilyn Webb builds her account around intimate portraits of the dying themselves. She explains why some deaths become shockingly difficult--and needlessly painful--and how the struggles over end-of-life decisions can pit patient and family against hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, religious groups, and the law.

But there is good news as well. Webb describes many extraordinary programs and individuals who are changing the face of dying. An abundant source of comfort and hope, The Good Death shows how the essential elements of humane--even uplifted--death are available to all of us, if we know what is possible, where to go for help, and how to prepare.

512 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 1999

Reviews

[Darleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of practices of caring for the dying with some historical perspectives (albeit recent history) and some perspectives of various faiths, especially Christianity and Buddhism with limited references to other faith traditions. I thinks it's an excellent starting place and will likely assign this in my Spirituality of Dying and Death class.