Suicide is not merely too harsh or blunt or embarrassing or unpleasant or offensive when applied to a self-controlled death. It is inaccurate based on its meaning and associations accumulated over time. The search for more accuracy in our descriptions continues.
What resources and services do home funeral guides and end-of-life (EOL) assistants offer or provide?
Those of us in the right to die (RTD) movement want to take charge of our own deaths should we be faced with unwanted suffering, either immediately or in the foreseeable future. Some of us who are supported by our families and friends might also like for those same family members and friends to take care of what happens to our bodies after death–a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to funerals. Others of us won’t care or we may favor a commercial disposition option.
Nothing is more personal than how we define a good death, yet our definition may not be obvious at first. Consideration of this question leads me to the idea that a good death is a dignified death; that is, the dying process is dignified. To maintain dignity in the dying process depends greatly on how our death comes. If it comes through violent means, dignity may not be found.
A former Dominican priest shares his thoughts on ending life gracefully after a fruitful time on this earth.
Talking to children about death is a topic not yet dealt with on this blog. This first discussion by author and blogger Dale McGowan approaches the topic from a freethinking, rather than from a religious perspective. Even for the religious among us, McGowan offers some insights that may be helpful. And even adults may derive benefit from his perspective.
To close out this year, FEN member Linda Wilshusen has allowed us to post some thoughts she first wrote three years ago for her own blog – the everyday primate – but are as timely now as when written. The Good Death Society Blog will take off for three weeks and return with new posts on January 8, 2018.
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Originally posted at “the everyday primate”
You’re probably rolling your eyes at this apparent not-joy-t0-the-world holiday season post. But hang in here with me – this topic could fuel unusual & maybe even helpful family dinner conversations. Still skeptical? Well, just remind yourself that there’s nothing more important to religious holidays than life & death.
