Oct. 18 — Nearly a third of U.S. heart patients die at home, which is more than the number who die in the hospital, according to a new study. Researchers examined data on more than 12 million heart disease patients who died between 2003 and 2017. They looked at whether the …
Americans are increasingly choosing cremation over burial, making it the new norm for end-of-life practices, a funeral industry report finds. Demand for cremation — the disposal of a body using flame or heat — continues to outpace that for traditional burial, says the National Funeral Directors Association’s 2019 report on …
Some hospitals and hospices have policies that forbid nurses to be part of the process or even to discuss end-of-life options. When Ben Wald, 75, was dying of cancer in 2012, he wanted to use Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act to receive a prescription for a lethal medication that would …
A palliative care physician struggles with the complex realities of dying at home, and the unintended consequences of making it a societal priority. “If time were short, where would you want to be?” As a palliative care physician, I regularly ask my patients, or their family members, where they want …
By October, more than one in five U.S. adults will be able to obtain lethal prescriptions if terminally ill. But for those who try, obstacles remain. On Aug. 1, New Jersey will become the eighth state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who want to …
Prognoses are more of an art than a science. Maybe it’s better not to know. Starrett Kreissman, a trim 59-year-old, was hiking with her husband, David Dolan, when the coughing started. She brushed it off, but Mr. Dolan suggested she get checked out. An exam turned up more questions, so …
SEATTLE (AP) — Ashes to ashes, guts to dirt. Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday making Washington the first state to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains. It allows licensed facilities to offer “natural organic reduction,” which turns a body, mixed with substances such as …
For terminally ill children and their families, pediatric hospice can be a godsend — but the American health care system makes it hard to keep facilities afloat. Children dressed as superheroes skidded over the hardwood floors of a toy-filled living room. Local police officers and firefighters pretended to give chase. …
“We’re making about a cubic yard of soil per person,” the founder of the company Recompose said. It may soon be legal for the dead to push daisies, or any other flower, in backyard gardens across Washington state. The state legislature recently passed a bill that, if signed by the …
SEATTLE — Leslie Christian recently added unusual language to her living will: After death, she hoped her remains would be reduced to soil and spread around to help out some flowers, or a tree. In essence, compost. “It seems really gentle,” said Ms. Christian, 71, a financial adviser. “Comforting and …
Nursing requires hands-on training. But research has found that university curriculum often goes light on one of life’s universal experiences — dying. So some colleges have gone to new lengths to make the training more meaningful. There’s a sound near the end — the death rattle. People stop swallowing. The …
NEW YORK (AP) — A training program for the next generation of morticians and undertakers is testament to a change that is slowly remaking the funeral business. Sixty of the 75 students in the program at the State University of New York Canton are women, and those numbers are no …