Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life

The art of dying well can be taught and learned, and this practical guide provides knowledge and skills to achieve a peaceful and gentle death. It covers essential elements of living well, preparing for a good death, understanding caregivers, end-of-life options, body disposition, commemorations, and grief. By overcoming anxiety and confusion, readers can intentionally plan for a "good death" that provides comfort for all during their final act.

Format: Hardback
Length: 338 pages
Publication date: 01 October 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

There is an art to dying well that can be taught and learned. While death is inevitable, dying badly is not. This practical guide to achieving a good death will reduce the fear that often cloaks discussions about death and dying and give readers the knowledge and skills to achieve a peaceful and gentle death. With the multiple options available at the end of life, people can design and direct their end-of-life journey so they have as fulfilling and meaningful life as possible right up to the end and achieve the elusive good death when the time comes. Chapters focus on essential elements of living well and preparing for a good death, including death cleaning, talking with loved ones and doctors about our end-of-life wishes and aspirations, writing a legacy letter (an ethical will) and a memoir to let loved ones know what is deep in our hearts, understanding caregivers, the benefits of palliative care, hospice care, and end-of-life doulas, and end-of-life options, including medical-aid-in-dying (MAID) and voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED). What it's like to die and how to help people as they die, options for disposition of the body of a loved one (or your own body) after death, especially in an economically and ecologically responsible way, planning commemorations and celebrations of life, and the nature of grief, including how to deal with it and why it is often unbearably painful. This thoughtful and gentle guide, exploring one of the most difficult human topics, equips every reader.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 236 x 157 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781475850512