The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America

by Ann Neumann

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Death, History, Science, Psychology, Medicine, Memoir

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2016

Reviews

[Ellen Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, very nearly 4 stars for me. The Good Death feels unfocused at times, but is nevertheless a strong work of nonfiction.

What does it mean to have a good death? Following her fathers death, author Ann Neumann searches for answers. Her journey takes her through hospice volunteering, the Death with Dignity movement, and pro-life activists, among others. She finds no easy answers, but rather more and more evidence that a "good death" may be something that eludes us all.

What The Good Death does well is open a conversation about death, dying, and the community of doctors, legalities, and moralities that surround it. The end of life is often painful and messy. I thought that the sections dealing with Neumann's hospice volunteering were especially good. There was no grand epiphany or congratulatory self growth to be found through spending time with the dying - her time with them was about them and making their last days the best possible.

The time the author spends with pro-life activists in Pennsylvania was so frustrating I about chucked my Kindle across the room. Which I know wouldn't have been productive, but damn, that was frustrating! Necessary of course, and I'm glad the author was willing to go there, but people who seek to make their individual morality universal are my personal trigger.

The Good Death had some focus issues. I'd feel we were driving right along, talking about interesting stuff, then all of a sudden we were on a different road and I had missed the exit. I also found the section on disability to be the weakest. I am in no way disabled, so the best thing I can do when it comes to disability is say, "Okay, I have no personal experience here, I'll defer to someone who does."

So, what does it mean to die well? I'm not sure I know absolutely, or ever will, but I think it means having choice. The choice to accept or deny medical treatment, the choice to say, "I know I'm terminal, I'm in pain, and I'm ready to die.", the choice to die at home or in hospice.

Neumann's The Good Death doesn't offer easy conclusions on what a good death is. What is does have is an exploration of end of life issues and the humanity of death. If a good death is the ideal way to die, Neumann's book is , while not a road map to get there, a compass to point us in the right direction. The rest is up to us.

Digital arc provided by Edelweiss & Beacon Press.

[LaShawnda Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America by Ann Neumann

One of the first phrases to stand out to me was part of a story Ann Neumann shared of a terminal man in the Midwest. He thought it was important to “participate in our own death.” (p 69)

There was a very strong sense that Ann Neumann was directing her words and somewhat undercover activism to a very distinct audience. Her audience was very much so white middle class, middle aged women. There were several times in the text when my neck snapped back in affront as if she assumed anyone outside of her preferred audience would have no interest in or understanding of a good death.

This was a book I was looking forward to reading when it was shared as the next selection for my book club. I read the first couple of chapters with great interest and anticipation. Somewhere approaching the center of the book, she got off topic or changed strategies that took away a great deal from the reading experience. By the end, I felt it was a fruitless book with a misleading title and subtitle.

One of the main things that was off-putting was the author’s off-handed handling of medical ethics. Neumann lost credibility with me on page 93 when she wrote one line on the Tuskegee Airmen experiments, which involved more than 600 black men, as being "observed but not treated for syphilis" when doctors knowingly misdiagnosed, lied and refused to treat the disease... and most likely gave the disease to those who did not have it. All because they reportedly wanted to watch the debilitating effects the disease has on black bodies as well as document their deaths from it. Neumann later spent twenty full pages on one woman in a coma. She exhausted the medical and personal ethics involved in keeping one young white woman on life support who may not have even wanted to be on life support had she been able to choose. Then there were the thirty pages she wrote pro-life conferences and how the conservative Christian right is a danger to the “right to die with dignity” movement. These fifty pages were followed by another thirty pages itemizing the online disputes with disabled bloggers who saw the terminally ill's right to die with dignity as a threat to their own personal safety under the care of medical professionals.

I confess I remain unable to connect these tangents. More so because one of the last personal profiles in the book is of a terminally ill imprisoned Latino man who was either a dreamer or a braggart. Neumann was disgusted by him and didn’t understand why he would share elaborate stories with her about his former life or his supposedly non-existent future. She actually wrote how she had no compassion for him and his situation. Yet she began the book writing about being a hospice volunteer to better understand the process of dying.

How is Neumann an authority on death? She concluded, "There is no good death, I now know.... But there is a good enough death.... knowing death makes facing it bearable.... And there is really one kind of bad death, characterized by the same bad facts: pain, denial, prolongation, loneliness.” (p210)

I stalled on the last chapter for a couple of weeks. I ended up finishing it while on vacation during a day trip to Tombstone, AZ. It proved to be a good fit with the Tombstone aesthetic. Ann Neumann's writing is reminiscent of Tombstone, a town that celebrates death and killing from a bygone age. The town's tourism thrives on ghost stories, hauntings and remembering the wild viciousness of lawless times. Neumann celebrates the privilege of white middle-class, middle-aged Americans. She goes on a grotesque exploration of what she thinks are horror stories in bioethics and medical morality while exhibiting no curiosity or compunction whatsoever for atrocities against humanity on mass scales.

[Book Riot Community]

As journalist Neumann went through the process of losing her father, she began wondering about the expression "a good death." Had her father died a good death. Haunted by this question, she signed on as a hospice volunteer to try and learn what it means to die a good death in America today. What she discovered is a fascinating look at what it means to be dying or close to someone who is dying in this country, and how our views of death have changed over the years.


Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...

[Carly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I suppose that's my bad for not reading reviews, and just the blurb provided online. I originally thought this would be a book about the culture of death and dying in America, and it kind of is, but it has a very firm focus on death with dignity laws.

The two main reasons this book only gets two stars: the (possibly unintentional but who can be sure) anti-Semitism and the blatant ableism. I'll explain. The author is anti-Semitic when they (unnecessarily) tack on Judaism when they in fact only mean, and only talk about Christianity (usually Catholicism and/or Evangelicalism). There are too many movements within Judaism for them to so carelessly tack it on at the end of Christian denominations, when they are nothing alike. Now, the ableism. There is one whole chapter dedicated to disability activists and (kind of) their fight against death with dignity laws. This author blatantly stated she wouldn't want to live in a wheelchair (making claims that life-long disabled people have a better "tolerance" than those who become disabled later in life), and frequently uses ableist terms throughout the book. She makes note of her disabled 'tokens' and why that means she can...I guess talk over disabled people. I dont really know what her goal was with the chapter, other than the cast the disabled community as the enemy (and comrades of anti-choicers), because it doesn't seem like she ever truly understood WHY the disabled community get concerned with death with dignity laws and what that could mean for us. Also, her acting like America doesnt have a close and intimate relationship with eugenics is dishonest, disengenous, and damn irritating and leaves out a LOT of context.

The reason this gets *more* than one star: the last two chapters had okay parts that were kind of interesting. I haven't read anything else by this author, and it will probably stay that way.

[M. Sarki · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/159596...

Over the past couple of years there have been several books ordered or taken down from my shelf regarding the subject of death. Some would say the subject is too morose to burden oneself with. But the final outcome of life is what we might expect given if facts are adhered to honestly. There is nothing more for me to add in reviewing The Good Death by Ann Neumann. Reading this book was not fun, but instead informative, upsetting, and interesting. There is no escaping the frustrations of the world as fellow victim of it. And anyone choosing to live in this world has in their own way already given themselves over to another. It is with luck and practice that our life ends peacefully. There is no reward, no medal given, for all of us one day will be ultimately forgotten. To believe otherwise is at best delusional, even if comforting at times. What is as important as what we do are the brief moments of intimacy that avail us when we reach out and become open to them. It is what adds sweetness to the tears we shed. There is no good death. Only one we can hope is good enough.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will put a quote here when this book is published.

Being Mortal really made me think about end of life issues. I am grateful to Gawande for his look at how we make decisions about dying. Apparently, I am not done thinking about end of life issues because when I was offered this book through Edelweiss, I decided it was worth trying.

Decisions about the way I want to die seem a lot more relevant now, than earlier in my life. First of all, my mom is 86. She has been talking about what a good death means to her. I hope to live as long and as well as she has. However, at 61, my death is likely closer to me than my birth.

Ann Neumann comes to her book through the death of her father, which makes her story similar to Gawande’s. There are similar factors, but the stories are not alike. Neumann’s father did not have the death he had expected and that his daughters tried to provide for him. Because her dad’s plan had failed, Neumann thought she would look into how others plan their last days.

Neumann is not a doctor. She is a journalist who has written for numerous publications including the New York Times. After her dad’s death she became a hospice volunteer which influenced her research. She also explores the connection between religion and death, which Gawande did not cover in his book.

Although there was a little overlap between Gawande’s essays and Neumann’s, they mostly compliment each other. Neumann interviews a number of people who have particular issues with health care in the United States. One man is in prison and being force fed. Another person in the book is disabled and concerned about how he will be taken care of in his last days.

Neumann is also more concerned about the politics of life support and what happens when people enter vegetative states.

If you have any interest in how your life might end and how others’ beliefs may affect that end, you should read this book. Neumann has done extensive research and she is an excellent writer.

Thank you as always to Edelweiss and Beacon for letting me read this book a bit early.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as we don't like to think about it, we are all going to die. And as much as we'd like to think that we have some control over how we will expire, the truth is that the manner of our demise is all too often left to others to decide. Journalist Ann Neumann explores the various options for dying in America in her book "The Good Death".

This book has been sitting on my shelf of advanced reading copies for so long that I had forgotten it was there. It's size and lightweight led me to grab it in a hurry when I was suddenly left bookless before my commute. As fate would have it, I've been recently dealing with the issues this book examines so it was more engaging to me than it might have been previously.

Ms. Neumann was inspired to write this book after the death of her father and her time spent volunteering for hospices, sitting and interacting with dying people in need of someone to talk with. This led her to some investigative journalism focused on insurance regulations, laws governing assisted suicide, religious movements out to prolong lives as long as possible and the various famous cases (i.e. Terry Schiavo) that have brought such issues to national attention. It can be a disheartening read for people harboring naive images of being allowed death with some semblance of dignity. All too often, she points out, the best laid plans for our deaths are thwarted by powers outside of our control. Simply being brought to a hospital that will not honor your wishes can lead to literally years of prolonged agony and litigation (and often bankruptcy) for patients and their families. It is truly frightening how the beliefs of one powerful lobby can supersede even the best legally prepared documents for "do not resuscitate" or "no extraordinary means". As ghastly as I think that is, there are plenty of others who feel that all life, even brain-dead, force-fed and machine driven "life," is worth preserving at all costs. Each point of view is given space, but it is clear that the author sides with those who believe we should have the right to say at what point we don't want to fight the reaper any more.

There is much food for thought here. And despite the possibility that my wishes will be ignored, I'm motivated to get it all legally documented in the hope that I don't have to resort to a bullet or a plastic bag tied over my head to be able to die in peace (hopefully many years in the future).

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Knowing death makes facing it bearable.” – Ann Neumann

My father passed away last August and ever since then I’ve been dealing with a lot of emotions and reflections on what it means to die. I saw this book on Beacon Press’ Goodreads giveaway page and I signed up for it. I’m very glad I did.

Author Neumann gives readers plenty to think about. She explores many different facets of dying in America, some I knew about, some I didn’t, and some that didn’t even occur to me. This allowed me to read more about what I knew and to learn what I didn’t know and what I didn’t know I didn’t know.

Neumann discusses at length her time as a hospice volunteer and profiles the various people she worked with. These stories were of interest to me because my father was in hospice during his last days and becoming a hospice volunteer is something I’ve seriously considered. Neumann also explores aid in dying and the legal and religious problems that come with it. She explains why people want to change the terminology from assisted suicide to aid in dying. There is also discussion about what is death. Is brain death really death? Some religious folks don’t think so. The famous case of Terri Schiavo is detailed at length as well as the more recent case of Jahi McMath, a brain dead teen who has been kept alive by her family.

The author explores the complications that arise with hospices in prison. What happens when a prisoner wants more painkillers? Are they asking for it because of real pain or because they want to get high off of it? Will denying them the medication mean cruel and unusual punishment? Also Neumann explores the pushback against aid in dying from the disabled. It’s a conundrum with no real answer but Neumann thoughtfully details the concerns.

This is not an easy book to read but it’s an important one. I wanted something different from it but I liked that it challenged me to think of many different scenarios and circumstances.

[Gayle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m finished with the book, but I didn’t read it all. I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I gave it two stars because the author did put in a lot of research. The title and intro made me think the book was more than the author’s contintual banter on her biased view end of life issues. I love to read, but I felt like I was forcing myself to read this book to just finish it. So, I’m done.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. I was optimistic when Neumann included a chapter on the disability rights movement and its critiques of assisted dying, but I didn't feel that she engaged with the topic in good faith. She refers to what she says are logically flawed online arguments by disability activists, but doesn't make the effort to find better ones (they exist!).

I was also disappointed by the chapter on prison hospice - an intriguing premise I'd have liked to learn more about, but Neumann essentially said she met with a patient in prison hospice once, and she didn't like him.

There was a lot of potential here and the writing was good but ultimately I felt Neumann was writing from a position of great privilege, where she wants what she wants and didn't care to engage with the complexities involved on a genuinely deep level.

[Lua · Rating 3 out of 5]

My primary doctor is associated with a hospital system that is Catholic. An interesting issue that the author brings up is that, if you end up in a Catholic hospital, they may deny your advanced directive and put a feeding tube in, even if you don't want one - because their mandate is to help patients "as long as it doesn't conflict with Catholic values." There are other problems that could occur for patients who are pregnant and have a medical problem that indicates that an abortion is needed to protect the woman or her future fertility. And they might not offer the possibility of aid in dying in those states that allow it.

[Hallie Whitley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really hard for me to get through but worth the read. I was not expecting the discussions on abortion, disability rights, and the prison system to intersect so much with the topic of death and it gave me a lot to think about.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like the past year has brought us our share of books that deal with death and dying: Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air were two which I've read and thought were very well done.

My most recent read on the subject was by author, Ann Neumann shares the death and dying experience of her father and then further examines death in the American Culture. Ann was 37 when she returned home to help care for her 60 year old father who was dying of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After refusing the last ditch chemo effort, he chose to go home to die. Unfortunately, his death wish to die at home with his daughters and hospice helping out were not to be. His drawn out death required that he be hospitalized for pain management levels that were not possible at home.

Ann shares some stories of her time as a hospice volunteer and discusses the history of death in the US. She shares her findings about death experience and how the experience differs based on socioeconomic environment -- the wealthy, those in poverty as well as those incarcerated. The Good Death also revisits some prominent right-to-die cases many of us recall to this day. For me the Karen Ann Quinlan and Terry Schiavo cases seemed in some ways like a media circus. It caused some individuals to change their views on living and dying and many others to put their final wishes in writing.

It's clear that the author believes that dying should be a "choice" and that individuals should have "choice" when recovery is no longer an option. She believes that there is not one particular scenario that constitutes "a good death", it's a personal situation that individuals, even those who avoid thinking about death, need to start planning for by making your wishes known to loved ones.

"A good death is whatever the patient wants. There is no such thing as a perfect date as humans aren't perfect."

Overall, I felt this book was well-done although the focus seemed to shift abruptly at times. An important subject, I'm glad I read it.

http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.c...

[Tatiana Maldonado · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh i couldn’t even finish this book. First off, the way she talks about her HIV+ patient had me concerned because she just kind of looked at him with pure pity instead of empathy or sympathy. And the way she freaked out for a moment thinking that she could contract HIV from him because she touched him and drank from his orange juice. Her experience as a hospice nurse didnt teach her much of anything on empathy for those that are terminally ill and/ or disabled. And then she just completely derails after that and goes on this tangent about conservative catholics and pro lifers. I thought this was about death, not abortion. And her dispute with a disabled man about her views. It’s like she tried to talk over him and say “I’ve done research so I’m right.” What about trying to hear about his experiences with being disabled? I dont want to scream about this woman’s privilege, but it kind of shows in her narrative here. I didn’t learn much of anything from this. It pissed me off more than anything

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a free book in exchange for a review.
This is a very comprehensive look at death and dying in America. This is a must for all health care professionals, terminally ill patients and family's. Dying is big business with something for everyone; all support groups, activists, news media.
Many important topics are discussed to include abortion, death with dignity movements and suicide. Not only at home or in hospitals, but hospice and the prison system. Many cases are discussed that have made the headline and are still with us today.
The book also follows several terminal patients and their journey to a good or bad death.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only got halfway. Beginning was good but it got repetitive and annoying about pro life and pro choice laws and cases. I wanted for anecdotes from the dying.

[Karo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's make it 2,5 stars. It's not a bad book, but the exploration of death part alluded to in the subtitle didn't quite deliver what I was expecting.

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars - I liked it

In The Good Death, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann examines what it means to die in the United States. She discusses end-of-life care, right to die, medical ethics, starvation deaths, and other aspects of what it could mean to die in America.

This book was very interesting because it looks at how your wishes for death may not always happen, even if you have the paperwork to prove that is your wish. I found the discussions of how hospitals can easily ignore your wishes, especially if you end up brain dead or on incubators to live. Even if your legal guardian shows proof that you want the plug pulled, organizations and even the hospitals will use whatever means they can to prevent it, like in the Terri Schiavo case.

I learned a lot from this book about right-to-die legislation, starvation deaths, and other legal aspects of dying. It really shows me that I need to start on a will and death care paperwork as soon as possible because you never know when an accident might happen. I do have a few issues with some of the discussions in this book. This book doesn’t really go into statistics or experiences of the BIPOC since all her in depth discussions are about cases involving white people.

Another issue was that she discussed a confrontation she had with a disabled blogger who was against her views because he was concerned about his personal safety when it came to right-to-die legislation. They do meet and form a friendship, but her tone and discussion of this man, and other disabled people, was very ablest and at times very negative. She never seemed to understand the blogger's concern about her views, which was disappointing considering she became friends with him.

My last issue with this book was in Chapter 8, she discussed meeting an inmate through hospice and that he sent her a letter about his experiences and life since their meeting. He asks her to reply but she wouldn't respond to him. I understand that a nurse told her that inmates wouldn’t be able to get letters but she never confirms that with the actual rules of the prison. She then goes on to discuss the compassion needed for dealing with end-of-life patients but still refuses to try to write to the one prisoner who was reaching out to her. It was very jarring to see her preach about compassion but ignore someone who was reaching out for it.

Overall, this was an interesting book but it does have its flaws. I learned a lot about end-of-life care and legislation but this is only a tiny portion of what the health care system is like. I would really love to see a follow up book, or another author, write about BIPOC experiences and disabled experiences. If this book is already written, please let me know because I would love to read it.

You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.

[David Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

After dealing with the prolonged trauma of her father’s slow decline in health and eventual death, Ann Neumann began wondering whether she made the right decisions along the way. Should she have let him commit suicide (which he himself suggested), or should she have continued fighting for him to live as long as possible no matter how miserable he was? In other words, what was the good death for him?

Early on in the book, she addresses the discrepancy between our romanticized view of death, of people dying nobly at just the right moment with just the right parting words and the messy reality. In so many cases, people begin suffering long before they die, and there is a gray area as to how much suffering they can or should put up with.

At least part of the issue, she argues, is that we have removed ourselves from death. Seeing our friends and family die painfully and suddenly is no longer a routine part of our lives as it was for many of our ancestors. Instead, we wash our hands of the situation and allow doctors to guide us along the “glide path” often with little understanding of the ramifications of the decisions they make for us.

It’s all clearly heartfelt, but Neumann lingers too long on certain sections. Her overview of evangelicals and the “pro-life” movement and their aversion to aid in dying is pretty well known and doesn’t add much to the conversation.

She sifts more fertile ground when she details a back and forth she had with a disability rights activist. Her argument is to allow those who’ve experienced a debilitating injury or illness to maintain personal autonomy while his is to fight to the bitter end lest people struggling with whatever kind of health issue become brainwashed into some form of pernicious ableism.

Over the course of the argument, it becomes clear that his concern of the disabled not being treated like full human beings is a real one and the basis for some legitimate fears on the part of the disabled community. But it also smacks of the same kind of arrogance and paternalism that others exude when they claim to know when all life begins and ends. And it’s portions of the book like these that do a better job parsing through the difficulties of how to treat life.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Good Death Ann Neumann examines death in America using her experience as a caregiver for her dying father as the springboard. She succeeds in looking both pragmatically and emotionally at what death is and what it isn't.

Unlike some memoirs on the topic of death this is not written specifically just to tell one person's death and the effect it has on others. Those books are wonderful for what they are but do not even try, understandably so, to "examine" death in America but rather to illustrate through a specific instance what death was like in a particular case. They usually present broader issues when they find themselves at odds with what they think is right and what they are or are not permitted to do. To the extent that this book does that it is relatively brief and is the origin point for a broader study.

I found the mixture of straightforward presentations of views and policies juxtaposed with more emotional tales of where those policies intersect with real people going through difficult times to be quite effective and moving. Those stories become not simply one person's battle isolated from the issues but emblematic of how policies and narrowly defined viewpoints impact many people fighting the same battle.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in death in both its emotional and its societal/legal/medical aspects. If you want something a bit more like a memoir where you follow one family and the larger issues are more like background, this may disappoint you. But fear not, there are plenty of such memoirs available and they can pack quite a punch. For those wanting the heart and the mind engaged together, this book will also pack quite a punch, and perhaps irritate you at some of the policies and viewpoints thrust on people when they are suffering already.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.

[Byron Edgington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we have what is commonly referred to as an EOL book, that is End Of Life. However, this addition to that genre is more in-depth, more focused on individuals, much more wide-ranging and curious. The author met and interviewed real characters in pursuit of answers: What is a good death? Ms Neumann, affiliated with NYU, is a journalist, and that training comes through in this wide ranging study of American hyper-medicalized, often contradictory and confusing perspective on death: The Karen Ann Quinlan/Nancy Cruzan/Terri Schiavo controversies; Catholic hospitals' blatant interference with patients' wishes and directives, what Neumann refers to as 'the tyranny of hope'; a New Mexico nursing home's eviction of an old couple engaged in VSED to hasten their deaths; the politics of death in the Terri Schiavo fiasco. She addresses the Catholic church's cherry picking enforcement of its edicts, and various groups that have tied together disparate social issues as abortion rights, gay marriage, and premarital sex. Neumann interviews a fellow named Bill Peace who's been vilified for attempting to kill himself: "Dying is easy," he says. "It's living that's a bitch." The author covers the various aspects of American capital punishment, concluding that, in certain U.S. states a good death equals a good execution. Neumann's overall conclusion is that no, there is no good death; there is only a 'good enough death.' One thing is certain: In 21st century America, there certainly is such a thing as a bad death. Just four stars because I wanted to know why 'Evelyn' never got her Twinkies? The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America

[Paperclippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neumann isn't kidding when she calls this book an exploration, but it's much more than an exploration of dying, or more, it's an exploration of all forms of death in America. Neumann dives deep into the issues of justice surrounding what it means to be allowed to die in a world where comfort care is mandatory and very often forced upon patients who are unable, either figuratively because of the emotionally strange and singular position they are put in, or literally, because they are unable to communicate, unconscious, or already brain dead, to refuse. Neumann goes above and beyond, looking not only to patients who are actively dying, such as those in hospice care with a typical expectation of six months or left to live, to a man on death row, protesting his conviction by hunger strike and perhaps ironically being made to eat - force to live.

In The Good Death, Ann Neumann handles sensitive topics from assisted suicide to the overlooked rights of people with disabilities to the hulking beast that is the Catholic Church with grace and eloquence. She does this because in each case, she finds someone to talk to, to talk with, and even when she doesn't agree with them, even when she flat out calls them on their bullshit, she allows that person to have a voice in the text, which makes for a though-provoking (if sometimes enraging) and important book about what it means to die well.

I won't say that Neumann changed my mind about any of the subjects covered here, but that's only because I feel like we were on the same page when I got stared. The Good Death is a beautiful and powerful argument about what it means to live your own life and die your own death in these United States.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the topics Neumann addresses - hospice care and its criticisms; the affect of wealth and class on dying; the tricky business of working with dying people, each with their own powerful life story - are vastly underdiscussed in society, and incredibly moving to read about.

Particularly interesting are the connections Neumann outlines between the death with dignity movement and the pro-choice movement, connected by the battle cry for bodily autonomy. Neumann heavily focused on the effects of religious institutions on the death with dignity movement, including how the Catholic church's chokehold on the health care system impedes patient choice. The debate around "natural death," and what that means given advancements in the medical filed that allow a patient's lungs and heart to keep working even as their brain is dead, was also fascinating to read out.

The chapter on disability rights and prisons both missed the mark for me. Both included unnecessary tangents and left out important aspects of the conversation. The relationships of disability rights and prisons to death with dignity laws are so complex and important that the single chapter reserved for each topic was not nearly enough to fully address either topic. While both chapters were interesting and raised important points about the nature of dying in America, they stood out as distinctly separate from the flow of the book's narrative.

Neumann's end message is that there is no "good" death. Death will always be sloppy and emotionally excruciating. But, if people are knowledgeable about what their options are, and think deeply about how much pain and discomfort they are willing to withstand, then each of us will be closer to a death that best reflects our individual values and desires.

[Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found out about this book through Caitlin Doughty. I’m very happy to have read it but I have a few qualms.

I think Neumanns goal in writing this was to change the conversation around death, her audience being straight white Christian women. She definitely accomplished this and I’m very grateful for her work, but it was simultaneously a very limited perspective.

There was a moment where Neumann described the fear and disgust that came from sharing an HIV+ patients orange juice (even though at the time she was fully aware on the ways that HIV could and could not be spread). She backpedalled, explaining that this was a fucked up but honest reaction that she had. I appreciate her honesty in sharing that, and I think it would be impactful to her Christian audience. She kind of perpetuated and simultaneously deconstructed some of the stigma. There could have been more sympathy over pity for the patient though.

I had a similar issue with the chapters she spends with disabled activists. It took her a lot to not pity disabled people, and I’m not sure if she completely got there in the end. Again though, I think her writing follows the thought processes of people who are internally ableist without realizing.

I felt like priorities were just off a little because how how strongly Neumann was trying to appeal to her audience. There was a lot of time spent discussing pro-life Christians, and only one sentence briefly mentioning the Tuskegee syphilis study.

Overall, this was a great book and I think it’s a perfect intro for those who are very apprehensive to start thinking about death and white culture around it, but it’s definitely not where anyone’s research should end.

[Dagny · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Defense of Hospice Care: I feel the need to take issue with the author's description of hospice care.
First, I cannot think of any hospice medications that cannot be administered to a hospice patient in their own home. E-Kits (packets of emergency pain and symptom relief medications) are provided for all patients upon admission to hospice care, even those receiving hospice care at home. There would be no reason for the patient to be transported from home and to the hospital to give medications. Second, there are four levels of hospice care and one of the levels is called continuous care (also known as crisis care). If a patient is at home and pain or symptoms (this includes terminal agitation) are out of control, the hospice team will set up round the clock care at home for a few days until the pain/symptoms are under control. Again, no need to remove the patient from their home. Finally, hospice is very holistic in its approach and needles are never used. All medications in hospice can be administered through dermal patches, sublingual, sepositories. The author's description of hospice "jamm[ing] needles full of [pain medication]" is highly unlikely.
One final note: I suspect that what really happened is that caring for her father at home became overwhelming and she did not want to hire caregivers which would have given her the help she needed to keep her dad at home. Caregivers can be expensive and caring for a dying loved one at home can be overwhelming for sure. It is more likely that Ms Neumann, exhausted and overwhelmed, insisted on placement. Her feelings of guilt made her shift the blame to hospice care, which is unfortunate.

[Ending Well · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately, her conclusion that there is no good death, but there is good enough death makes this book an invaluable addition to the “death cannon”. While investigating the institutions that shape our dying she seems surprisingly blind to how race, gender, and class impact that shaping. The failure to investigate the relationship between race and medicine is a surprising blind spot. Her inability to grasp the core of disability rights arguments- that quality of life should be judged by own value, not ability is somewhat tempered by her understanding of how the intersection of institutional medicine and disability poses a constant threat to the rights and lives of people with disabilities.
Her almost-but-not-quiet summary of medical ethics and the right to die should be alarming, but as this is simply a journalistic book and not an authoritative ethical tome I guess that’s ok.
I would recommend this book to any layperson but caution death professionals from relying too heavily on it due to errors, misinterpretations and skipped subjects.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how to say that a book about death was fantastic, but this was. I felt it very well rounded. Lots of different positions and perspectives on death that were pretty fairly represented and opinions were insightful and not forced. It's a lot of info at times but, just when I thought it was going over my head, it wasn't. I didn't have to double back to understand which I appreciate from a book of this nature. It's a lot that needs talked about more than it is. Death is a reality that we almost ignore or fictionalize. This book wasn't about how to die or a study of how it happens, but more how death is different for everyone-the personal and ethical and medical barriers. When and how we leave this earth is a very personal thing that should be easier to do in our country but it isn't. This book really brings light to it.
Anyway. That's my two. Lol.

[Mihwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice cheerful book prompted by the author’s sense of failure and helplessness in watching her father die in the exact manner he had hoped to avoid. For extra flavor, be sure to read only in the hours between two and five am.

In all seriousness, this is a meandering book that inspects death from a few different lenses, including the history of hospice, death with dignity, death and disability, and abortion rights. It feels very much like a series of journalistic deep dives that this author went on, trying to come to terms with what she had experienced, and I think it works well from that perspective. The last chapter attempts to tie it all together, grasping for a definition and narrative of a good death, but it feels unnecessary. We are often so divorced from death that this kind of frank curiosity and exploration is refreshing and — to me, anyway— informative.

[Cheyenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neumann writes eloquently on the struggles of dying in America. Building on the foundations laid down by previous journalists like Jessica Mitford, Neumann argued that we spend too much money caring for our dead and dying and yet we don’t do enough. In personal narratives intermingled between reviews of the current literature on death, dying, and palliative care in the U.S. Neumann brings to light issues that will one day be central to each of our lives, if they aren’t already, in a way that is clear and engaging.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn more about the state of palliative care in the U.S. or just wants to dio heir toe into the death and dying conversation.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive history of the debate of assisted-dying in Canada and what happens in other countries, like Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Martin chronicles the battle through anecdotes and cases like Sue Rodriguez, Tracy Latimer, Layton Myers, Ruth Bach, Al Purdy, Margaret Lawrence... "Pain and suffering aren't just a physical experience; it is an emotional and spiritual experience and it has to be addressed on all those levels" as quoted by Gabor Mate, a family doctor of Vancouverite, Daniel Devaney, who ended his own life at sixty after becoming a paraplegic due to a pruning accident with electrical wires and a fall injuring his spinal cord. Ultimately, Martin urges we all have the conversation with those we love most.