Talking about Death Won't Kill You

By Virginia B. Morris

With its wise and very compelling argument that we should face death before it faces us, Talking About Death Won't Kill You addresses cultural, personal, medical, and legal concerns to find a way for us-as individuals, and as a society-to prepare for a good death, a death where the dying are in control and not, as is too often the case, caught in a downward spiral of medical intervention and misunderstood intentions. It is an argument for facing fears. An argument for taking the thought of our death out of the shadows of denial and preparing, with our loved ones, the living wills, medical directives, value history forms, and even simple letters that will explain what it truly is we want when the time comes. It is an argument for honest diagnosis, for hospice care, for creating rituals, for finding love and comfort at the end instead of false hope and forbidding technology. With its skillful interweaving of personal stories and practical matters, scientific fact and spiritual sensitivity, Talking About Death Won't Kill You is a powerful book about how we can achieve a greater sense of peace in dying, and so rediscover the art of living.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761112316
• ISBN13: 9780761112310
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Workman Publishing
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Just for me!

Although I am an RN and have wrapped many patients for the morgue in my day, I still fear death and if I will feel anything when I am dead. This book was affirming, validating and inspiring. It will help me live my life. How does so young a person have such insight into this topic? Of note an article entitled "Could the clinically dead feel pain" in ABC Science Online is fascinating. Thankyou Virginia. Buy the BOOK!

A book about life

This book is a welcome breath of fresh air in a world that seems to pretend that death never happens. It does, and this book reminds that denial will cheat us from what matters in life. My experience as a physician reminds me every day that death is an essential part of life. The book is filled with moving stories about people's confrontation with death and lessons to help us lead a richer life.

Amen to this

Virgina understands that remembering is part of healing.I also use Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal in my classes. It is good to find books such as these.For the children I teach I use After the Tears, A Gentle Guide to Help Children Understand Death.

Very Enlightening

I bought this book because I am starting to volunteer at a convalescent home. I recommend it for anyone who is going to comfort the terminally ill.The book's true stories and descriptions of what extreme life-saving measures doctors often resort to, have made me want to have a very specific advanced medical directive. Artificial breathing / ventilation and feeding tubes are not for me!

Exactly What I Needed!!

A powerful and positive call to action that inspired me to "make death part of life". Like most Americans, I come from a family in which the very thought of death is always put off until it's much, much too late. Ms. Morris's book changed all that for me. It defanged the "death monster" and turned it into a facet of life that I will think about, talk about and prepare for with my family and friends in a manner that will ease the passage of the dying invididual as well as those who love that person.I never thought a book about death could be so life-affirming!!