“We really need to free dying from the hospital and take it back into the community where it belongs,” said Dr. VJ Periyakoil, director of palliative care education and training at Stanford University School of Medicine.
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June 10, 2016

“Cyberspace just gives us a new place to grieve, a new place to create rituals, a new place to memorialize the death of someone we care about,” says Carla Sofka, professor of social work at Siena College and co-editor of a book on death and grief in an online universe. More →

January 21, 2016

In the five states where it’s legal, physician-assisted dying involves rigorous regulations, including how long a person has lived there, says Cathy Lynn Grossman, senior national correspondent for Religion News Service. “Brittany Maynard moved from California to Oregon, where it’s legal specifically to qualify for…a prescription for lethal drugs. The person takes the drugs themselves if and when they choose to, and not everyone who gets the prescription ever uses it.” More →

October 31, 2014

Best-selling writer and journalist Sara Davidson felt completely unprepared for the reality of dying. Then she met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Their weekly conversations about mortality led to their book “The December Project.” “When you feel you’re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of that time,” asked Reb Zalman, “and how do we prepare for the mystery?” More →

August 8, 2014

“I have a hard time conceiving of a God completely removed from suffering,” says Christian Wiman, a lecturer in religion and literature at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. “Once I understand the notion of Christ participating in suffering, then it makes more sense to me.” More →

June 5, 2014

“Poetry had always been the place where I’d experienced God and it’s still the place where I feel lifted out of myself and given something I could not understand in any other way.” More →

June 5, 2014

Best-selling writer and journalist Sara Davidson says she felt completely unprepared for the reality of dying. Then she met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Their weekly conversations about facing mortality led to their book, “The December Project.” “When you feel you’re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of that time,” asks Reb Zalman, “and how do we prepare for the mystery?” More →

May 2, 2014

“We become less human if we don’t tend to grief in an open-hearted and generous way,” says Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington, DC. “We face into that abyss and say yet I will live, yet I will pass on life and joy. Even if I can’t know it myself, I will ensure that others will, and I will find my greater meaning in that.” More →

February 7, 2014

“I have a hard time conceiving of a God completely removed from suffering,” says Christian Wiman, a lecturer in religion and literature at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. “Once I understand the notion of Christ participating in suffering, then it makes more sense to me.” More →

October 25, 2013

“Poetry had always been the place where I’d experienced God and it’s still the place where I feel lifted out of myself and given something I could not understand in any other way.” More →

October 25, 2013