"Following the death of her father, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann sets out to examine what it means to die well in the United States. If a good death exists, what does it look like? This question lies at the heart of Neumann's rigorously researched and intimately told journey along the ultimate borderland of American life: American death. From church basements to hospital wards to prison cells, Neumann charts the social, political, religious, and medical landscape to explore how we die today. The Good Death weaves personal accounts with a historical exploration of the movements and developments that have changed the ways we experience death. With the diligence of a journalist and the compassion of a caregiver, Neumann provides a portrait of death in the United States that is humane, beautifully written, and essential to our greater understanding of the future of end-of-life care"-- Provided by publisher.

"If a good death exists, what does it look like? This question lies at the heart of SITTING VIGIL, a rigorously researched and intimately told journey along the ultimate borderland of American life: American death. From church basements to hotel lobbies, hospital wards to prison cells, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann charts contemporary society and political, religious, and medical culture to tell us how we die today. In 2005, Neumann left her job in New York City to care for her father who had been suffering from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. She became a full-time caregiver--cooking, cleaning, and coordinating medications with hospice for three months in her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When her father died, two days after Thanksgiving, she was undone by the experience, by the grief and visceral quality of death. It set Neumann on a course of research and investigation. Was her father's death a good death? Do others die this way? Is there a best way to die? SITTING VIGIL is the result of more than six years of hospice work, research, and examination into these questions and more. SITTING VIGIL deftly interweaves these personal accounts with a historical telling of the movements and developments that have changed the way we die, including the medical advancements that have altered the definition of death forever, patients' rights legislation, the prevalence of hospice and palliative care, Catholic hospitals that apply the Vatican's laws to a pluralistic society, the increasing successes of the Death with Dignity movement, health care reform, and the rise of excessive, ineffective medical treatment. SITTING VIGIL is the first book to survey the breadth and variation of death in America, and Neumann writes with engaging warmth, wit, and frank detail."-- Provided by publisher.