Dying, Death, Terminal Illness

Advance Directives by US State

Click here to find information about your state's advance directive or "living will": http://www.caringinfo.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3289

Articles

"Intense Treatment in the Last Month of Life Is Rising. One Question Can Stop End-of-Life Torture"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-coombs-lee/end-of-life-care_b_2807194.html

"Gawande New Yorker article on end-of-life care wins National Magazine Award"

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/gawande-national-magazine-award-html/

"Letting Go: What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?"

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=1

"How Not to Die: Angelo Volandes's low-tech, high-empathy plan to revolutionize end-of-life care"

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/how-not-to-die/309277/

"Our unrealistic attitudes about death, through a doctor’s eyes"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-unrealistic-views-of-death-through-a-doctors-eyes/2012/01/31/gIQAeaHpJR_story.html

Books

Please buy books directly from publishers and from local, independent booksellers.

• To find an independent bookseller near you, click on the link for Indie-bound's independent bookstore finder.

• You can order new and used books, including textbooks, on-line from a number of independent booksellers, including Alibris in the US and Europe: http://www.alibris.com/ and http://www.alibris.co.uk.

A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L'Engle

• http://www.madeleinelengle.com/books/ringOfEndlessLight.htm

Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, by Rachel Naomi Remen

• http://www.rachelremen.com/ktw.html

The American Way of Death Revisited, by Jessica Mitford

• • Anyone who will ever be involved with a death, or with planning for what to do when someone dies, should read this.  (Yes, that's all of us.)

• http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780679771869.html

The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, by M. Macha NightMare (Aline O'Brien), Starhawk, and the Reclaiming Collective

• • This is a wonderful resource book

• http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780062515162/Pagan_Book_of_Living_and_Dying_The/index.aspx

Hospice

"Caring Connections" of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (US)

• http://www.caringinfo.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Toll-Free HelpLine (US)

• 1-800-658-8898

What Is Hospice? (US)

• http://www.nhpco.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4648

Course

I highly recommend "Call of the Dark Mother: Working with Dying and Death" for any self-identified Pagan who has experienced working with dying and death or who is called to work with dying and death. 

This course is offered through Cherry Hill Seminary (http://cherryhillseminary.org/), and is often open to non-matriculated students (students who are not enrolled in the master's program). 

Network

The Quaker Concern Around Dying & Death (UK)

• http://www.quaker.org.uk/quaker-concern-around-dying-and-death

  • Organizes courses/workshops at Woodbrooke and has twice-yearly gatherings.