Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot....

This program discusses care at the end of life, primarily focusing on pallative care of individuals and their families. The program's focus is on spiritual and supportive aspects of care rather than physical care. Information on the role and importance of advance care planning and advance directives is also presented.

"Frustrated reporter Aidyn Kelley begrudgingly agrees to help a hospice patient prepare her obituary. But old Clara Kip has some incredible stories-and some surprises up her sleeve-that promise to make this seemingly throwaway assignment a life-changing one"--

"There is a vast literature on death and dying, but there are few reliable accounts of the ways in which we die. The intimate account of how various diseases take away life, offered in How We Die, is not meant to prompt horror or terror but to demythologize the process of dying to help us rid ourselves of that fear of the terra incognita." "Though the avenues of death - AIDS, cancer, heart attack, Alzheimer's, accident, and stroke - are common, each...

Twenty-four-year-old Edward Warren, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: his dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara. With her father's chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father's...

When a spouse becomes seriously ill, the healthy partner often feels a profound sense of helplessness and despair. This book offers a new sense of empowerment for the intimate partners of people living with serious health problems.