Good Deaths and Bad Deaths: A Guide to a Graceful Ending

Description

This is not the first book about the struggle to die. But it is the first book about the whole journey, from start to finish. This is a guide to help families plan a graceful death. And make no mistake, it takes planning to avoid last days full of paperwork and machinery. There are books about grieving, books about caretaking, books about hospice, and books about coping with conditions that have no cure. These books often start too late to provide true comfort. Demographer Susan Watkins wanted to cover every step of the process. Good Deaths and Bad Deaths shows how the elderly can go from alive and healthy, to dying gracefully at home with their family.

Susan Watkins is a Sociologist and Demographer who has conducted research in the US and across the world, most recently in Malawi and Kenya. When she retired from teaching at 65 she lost the love of her life. Her gaze fell on a different horizon- How, she thought, could she have at least some control of the end of her life? How could she die gracefully, at home, with her family? What are the bumps on the road that will hinder a graceful ending?