death & dying

Becky Garrison
Members Public

Leave out your dead: The coming demise of the dirt nap

Once the default, traditional burials will likely be viewed by future generations as a weird, wasteful choice

Dale McGowan
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I want to die like a dog

Dying like a dog is the best death I can imagine.

M L Clark
Members Public

Our secular struggle with medically assisted dying

Reading Time: 14 minutes Suffering from chronic pain, a friend’s grandmother took her own life when I was 18. I was over when my friend and her mother heard the news. I will never forget the character of her mother’s grief. She was devastated to lose her own mother, yes. But she was even more devast

Dr. Eve Makoff
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Slowing to listen at the end of life

Marcia sat up on the side of the bed, a hand on each knee, and braced herself as she leaned forward to open the space in her chest for more air. At 52, she was dying of ovarian cancer that had spread to her liver. The critical organ had failed,

Adam Lee
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The deathbed perspective

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s easy to forget that life is temporary. How would you live differently with that knowledge in front of you?

Dale McGowan
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Will I go gentle?

Reading Time: 9 minutes OnlySky · Will I go gentle? | Dale McGowan If you haven’t visited The Death Clock, you really must. Enter your date of birth, height, weight and Body Mass Index, and the Death Clock spits out the day and date on which you’ll hear the galloping hooves of the pale horse. Mine i

M L Clark
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‘Memento Mori’: To live with the prospect of death (Strange New Worlds)

Reading Time: 9 minutes Like any self-respecting Trekkie, I learned the basics of gunpower from Star Trek: The Original Series. One of TOS‘s most memorable scenes comes from “Arena” (Season 1, Episode 18), when Captain Kirk, trapped on a planet with minimal resources, has to use his wits to survive

Dave Warnock
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Dying out loud

A terminal ALS diagnosis led Dave Warnock to a question: Would he spend his remaining time trying to stay alive, or living?