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When Breath Becomes Air: A Young Neurosurgeon Examines the Meaning of Life as He Faces His Death

By Maria Popova — 2016

“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world.”

Read on www.brainpickings.org

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Terminal Options for the Irreversibly Ill

My Feb. 5 column, “A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit,” prompted a deluge of information and requests for information on how people too sick to reap meaningful pleasure from life might be able to control their death.

Article
Jane E. Brody
2008
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A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit

Studies of dying patients who seek a hastened death have shown that their reasons often go beyond physical ones like intractable pain or emotional ones like feeling hopeless.

Article
Jane E. Brody
2008
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What Cancer Takes Away

When I got sick, I warned my friends: Don’t try to make me stop thinking about death.

Article
Anne Boyer
2019
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Old Age Is Not Guaranteed

Zen training talks a lot about death. But one practitioner found that it doesn’t necessarily prepare you to face your own.

Article
Natalie Goldberg
2018
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What a Doctor Wishes Patients Knew About the End

Both providers and patients do have power to shape their experience together, especially if they take the time to have a few crucial conversations. In the spirit of palliation, here are a few things, as a physician, I wish I could share more often with patients and their caregivers.

Article
B. J. Miller
2019
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My Own Life

A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out—a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.

Article
Oliver Sacks
2015
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EXPLORE TOPIC

Facing Own Death