Exploring Death: What You Should Know About Dying

Big questions about death

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As much as we don't like to think about it, we are all going to die. And as much as we'd like to think that we have some control over how we will expire, the truth is that the manner of our demise is all too often left to others to decide. This book has been sitting on my shelf of advanced reading copies for so long that I had forgotten it was there.

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It's size and lightweight led me to grab it i As much as we don't like to think about it, we are all going to die. It's size and lightweight led me to grab it in a hurry when I was suddenly left bookless before my commute. As fate would have it, I've been recently dealing with the issues this book examines so it was more engaging to me than it might have been previously. Neumann was inspired to write this book after the death of her father and her time spent volunteering for hospices, sitting and interacting with dying people in need of someone to talk with. This led her to some investigative journalism focused on insurance regulations, laws governing assisted suicide, religious movements out to prolong lives as long as possible and the various famous cases i.

Terry Schiavo that have brought such issues to national attention. It can be a disheartening read for people harboring naive images of being allowed death with some semblance of dignity. All too often, she points out, the best laid plans for our deaths are thwarted by powers outside of our control. Simply being brought to a hospital that will not honor your wishes can lead to literally years of prolonged agony and litigation and often bankruptcy for patients and their families. It is truly frightening how the beliefs of one powerful lobby can supersede even the best legally prepared documents for "do not resuscitate" or "no extraordinary means".

As ghastly as I think that is, there are plenty of others who feel that all life, even brain-dead, force-fed and machine driven "life," is worth preserving at all costs. Each point of view is given space, but it is clear that the author sides with those who believe we should have the right to say at what point we don't want to fight the reaper any more. There is much food for thought here. And despite the possibility that my wishes will be ignored, I'm motivated to get it all legally documented in the hope that I don't have to resort to a bullet or a plastic bag tied over my head to be able to die in peace hopefully many years in the future.

Jul 28, Raquel rated it really liked it Shelves: Author Neumann gives readers plenty to think about. Neumann discusses at length her time as a hospice volunteer and profiles the various people she worked with. Neumann also explores aid in dying and the legal and religious problems that come with it.

She explains why people want to change the terminology from assisted suicide to aid in dying. There is also discussion about what is death.

Global trends in death and dying: View as single page

Is brain death really death? The famous case of Terri Schiavo is detailed at length as well as the more recent case of Jahi McMath, a brain dead teen who has been kept alive by her family. The author explores the complications that arise with hospices in prison. What happens when a prisoner wants more painkillers? Are they asking for it because of real pain or because they want to get high off of it? Will denying them the medication mean cruel and unusual punishment? Also Neumann explores the pushback against aid in dying from the disabled.

I wanted something different from it but I liked that it challenged me to think of many different scenarios and circumstances. May 10, Carly rated it it was ok Shelves: This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I suppose that's my bad for not reading reviews, and just the blurb provided online. I originally thought this would be a book about the culture of death and dying in America, and it kind of is, but it has a very firm focus on death with dignity laws.

The two main reasons this book only gets two stars: The author is anti-Semitic when they unn This book was not what I thought it was going to be. There are too many movements within Judaism for them to so carelessly tack it on at the end of Christian denominations, when they are nothing alike.

There is one whole chapter dedicated to disability activists and kind of their fight against death with dignity laws. This author blatantly stated she wouldn't want to live in a wheelchair making claims that life-long disabled people have a better "tolerance" than those who become disabled later in life , and frequently uses ableist terms throughout the book. She makes note of her disabled 'tokens' and why that means she can I guess talk over disabled people. I dont really know what her goal was with the chapter, other than the cast the disabled community as the enemy and comrades of anti-choicers , because it doesn't seem like she ever truly understood WHY the disabled community get concerned with death with dignity laws and what that could mean for us.

Also, her acting like America doesnt have a close and intimate relationship with eugenics is dishonest, disengenous, and damn irritating and leaves out a LOT of context. I haven't read anything else by this author, and it will probably stay that way. Aug 17, LaShawnda Jones rated it it was ok. Her audience was very much so white middle class, middle aged women. There were several times in the text when my ne The Good Death: There were several times in the text when my neck snapped back in affront as if she assumed anyone outside of her preferred audience would have no interest in or understanding of a good death.

This was a book I was looking forward to reading when it was shared as the next selection for my book club. I read the first couple of chapters with great interest and anticipation. Somewhere approaching the center of the book, she got off topic or changed strategies that took away a great deal from the reading experience. By the end, I felt it was a fruitless book with a misleading title and subtitle. Neumann lost credibility with me on page 93 when she wrote one line on the Tuskegee Airmen experiments, which involved more than black men, as being "observed but not treated for syphilis" when doctors knowingly misdiagnosed, lied and refused to treat the disease All because they reportedly wanted to watch the debilitating effects the disease has on black bodies as well as document their deaths from it.

Neumann later spent twenty full pages on one woman in a coma. She exhausted the medical and personal ethics involved in keeping one young white woman on life support who may not have even wanted to be on life support had she been able to choose. These fifty pages were followed by another thirty pages itemizing the online disputes with disabled bloggers who saw the terminally ill's right to die with dignity as a threat to their own personal safety under the care of medical professionals.

I confess I remain unable to connect these tangents. More so because one of the last personal profiles in the book is of a terminally ill imprisoned Latino man who was either a dreamer or a braggart. She actually wrote how she had no compassion for him and his situation. Yet she began the book writing about being a hospice volunteer to better understand the process of dying. How is Neumann an authority on death? She concluded, "There is no good death, I now know But there is a good enough death And there is really one kind of bad death, characterized by the same bad facts: I ended up finishing it while on vacation during a day trip to Tombstone, AZ.

It proved to be a good fit with the Tombstone aesthetic. Ann Neumann's writing is reminiscent of Tombstone, a town that celebrates death and killing from a bygone age. The town's tourism thrives on ghost stories, hauntings and remembering the wild viciousness of lawless times.

Neumann celebrates the privilege of white middle-class, middle-aged Americans. She goes on a grotesque exploration of what she thinks are horror stories in bioethics and medical morality while exhibiting no curiosity or compunction whatsoever for atrocities against humanity on mass scales.

It seems like the past year has brought us our share of books that deal with death and dying: My most recent read on the subject was by author, Ann Neumann shares the death and dying experience of her father and then further examines death in the American Culture. Ann was 37 when she returned home to help care for her 60 year old father who was dying of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

After refusing the las It seems like the past year has brought us our share of books that deal with death and dying: After refusing the last ditch chemo effort, he chose to go home to die. Unfortunately, his death wish to die at home with his daughters and hospice helping out were not to be.

His drawn out death required that he be hospitalized for pain management levels that were not possible at home. Ann shares some stories of her time as a hospice volunteer and discusses the history of death in the US. She shares her findings about death experience and how the experience differs based on socioeconomic environment -- the wealthy, those in poverty as well as those incarcerated.

The Good Death also revisits some prominent right-to-die cases many of us recall to this day. It caused some individuals to change their views on living and dying and many others to put their final wishes in writing. It's clear that the author believes that dying should be a "choice" and that individuals should have "choice" when recovery is no longer an option. She believes that there is not one particular scenario that constitutes "a good death", it's a personal situation that individuals, even those who avoid thinking about death, need to start planning for by making your wishes known to loved ones.

There is no such thing as a perfect date as humans aren't perfect.

1 Introduction

An important subject, I'm glad I read it. Feb 28, Marty rated it it was amazing. This was a free book in exchange for a review. This is a very comprehensive look at death and dying in America. This is a must for all health care professionals, terminally ill patients and family's. Dying is big business with something for everyone; all support groups, activists, news media. Many important topics are discussed to include abortion, death with dignity movements and suicide.

Not only at home or in hospitals, but hospice and the prison system. Many cases are discussed that have made This was a free book in exchange for a review.

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Many cases are discussed that have made the headline and are still with us today. The book also follows several terminal patients and their journey to a good or bad death. Jun 01, Earl rated it really liked it. In The Good Death Ann Neumann examines death in America using her experience as a caregiver for her dying father as the springboard. She succeeds in looking both pragmatically and emotionally at what death is and what it isn't. Unlike some memoirs on the topic of death this is not written specifically just to tell one person's death and the effect it has on others. Those books are wonderful for what they are but do not even try, understandably so, to "examine" death in America but rather to illus In The Good Death Ann Neumann examines death in America using her experience as a caregiver for her dying father as the springboard.

Those books are wonderful for what they are but do not even try, understandably so, to "examine" death in America but rather to illustrate through a specific instance what death was like in a particular case. They usually present broader issues when they find themselves at odds with what they think is right and what they are or are not permitted to do. To the extent that this book does that it is relatively brief and is the origin point for a broader study. I found the mixture of straightforward presentations of views and policies juxtaposed with more emotional tales of where those policies intersect with real people going through difficult times to be quite effective and moving.

Those stories become not simply one person's battle isolated from the issues but emblematic of how policies and narrowly defined viewpoints impact many people fighting the same battle. If you want something a bit more like a memoir where you follow one family and the larger issues are more like background, this may disappoint you. But fear not, there are plenty of such memoirs available and they can pack quite a punch. Lewis once put it: For Christians, however, the ultimate answer to the meaning and value of suffering is found in the experience of Jesus himself.

Books Related to Death & Dying

He reminded us that Christ who was cruelly tortured and crucified on Calvary still identifies himself with those who need his presence in their hour of need:. When we are tempted to echo those words, we need to remember that God is now and forever at the heart of any human suffering. The Christ who was cruelly tortured and crucified on Calvary suffers still whenever there is pain, suffering or death, among those he now identifies with.

When Andrew Robinson from Coventry was training to be a priest, he discovered he had advanced colon cancer. Throughout his journey towards death, he saw it as a sharing in the cross of Christ.

His mother recalled his words the day before he died: Home What is dying well? Talking about death Facing death personally Losing a loved one Caring for the dying About this site. Big questions about death. Spiritual support Fr Peter goes on: Mystery in suffering Dealing with suffering might also be very much on your mind. He reminded us that Christ who was cruelly tortured and crucified on Calvary still identifies himself with those who need his presence in their hour of need: Write a customer review.

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I must admit that I was initially skeptical about reading this - a book about death seemed to me a morbid topic for a casual read. But at the airport for a recent business trip, I opened it up and almost missed my flight because I became so engrossed! Far from being gruesome, this is a very uplifting, enlightening, and thought-provoking read. Written from a scientist's point of view, it provides the best of the "hard" evidence that exists in support of an existence after death. With intriguing anecdotes from near-death and out-of-body experiences to an excellent historical overview of death through the ages to a fascinating summary of unusual deaths, this book keeps you quite entertained.

More importantly, I think this is an excellent resource for those suffering from terminal illness or dealing with the recent loss of a loved-one. Ironically, this book about death is one of the most hopeful and inspiring books that I have read and has caused me not only to appreciate my life more fully but has also decreased my anxiety about death. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

Had high hopes for the book considering the previous reviews, but at one third way into it find mostly superfluous and general information. Perks up the interest after that point, however. One person found this helpful.

Let me start by stating that I highly recommend this book to anyone who is caring for a terminally-ill loved one or who is herself in a hospice environment. I have experienced the deaths of several close family members during my life. I don't need to tell you that the dying and grieving processes are excruciatingly difficult. With each death, I looked for a resource that would provide not only comfort but also insight into process of what is next after this life.

I never found a satisfying source until I bought this book. This book is full of hope and insight and is the most comprehensive source that I have found of the evidence that exists for a reality after life. It is written in a very logical manner and, ironically, is written by a scientist - a profession known for doubting that which cannot be definitely proved, making it therefore all the more believable.

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