Hospice, Palliative Care & the American Way of Dying




RadioMD (All Shows) show

Summary: When parents die other than a good death, their legacy of departing lasts a lifetime for the living; often with painful emotional and economic consequences.When parents die other than a good death, their legacy of departing -- plus memories of the event -- last a lifetime for the living, often with painful emotional and economic consequences. Katy Butler's Knocking On Heaven's Door stand outs as a dead-honest personal story that doesn't attempt to hide the anger, denial and even cowardice of family members as they cope with the unimaginable... the death of parents. Butler rails against the implacable insistence on life at any cost that drives the medical establishment into creating the worst kind of death possible. In this segment of Body Language, host Christopher Springmann and author Butler also discuss the crucial role that advance directives can play in insuring a good death, one that meets everyone's expectations and needs. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is singled out as an extraordinary resource for free information on pre-planning, caregiving, grieving and state-specific advance directive forms.