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NewsCut

MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

Tag: Death and dying

Health · Politics

The state of assisted-suicide laws

Bob CollinsBob Collins April 11, 2019, 7:20 AM Apr 11, 2019
31 Comments

Like many other issues, there is a reckoning coming on the issue.

But not until it gets talked about. Read more →

This or That

There’s no money in cemeteries

Bob CollinsBob Collins March 21, 2019, 10:31 AM Mar 21, 2019
11 Comments

Bill McReavy has lost $300,000 in each of the last three years and he’s trying to give Crystal Lake Cemetery to Minneapolis Read more →

Health

In telling man he would soon die, technology overwhelms humanity

Bob CollinsBob Collins March 11, 2019, 2:34 PM Mar 11, 2019
19 Comments

The world of medicine is still trying to figure out how to incorporate the wonders of technology with the need and importance of human interaction and comfort.

It’s still got a way to go, if the story of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont, Calif., is any indication. Read more →

This or That

Contemplations on a lifeless body

Bob CollinsBob Collins March 4, 2019, 8:42 AM Mar 4, 2019
52 Comments

Some customs of our civilization have been around so long they seem perfectly normal. And when it comes to death, who wants to talk about what we do to a corpse? Sallie Tisdale does. Read more →

Health

On ‘the honor of dying’

Bob CollinsBob Collins December 22, 2017, 7:51 AM Dec 22, 2017
2 Comments

In telling the story of Karen Axeen, 57, of Apple Valley, KARE 11 reporter Lindsey Seavert invoked a powerful phrase — four words that can change the way we look at the world and our mortality: ‘the honor of dying.’
Read more →

Health

Can we talk about dying?

Bob CollinsBob Collins June 15, 2017, 8:48 AM Jun 15, 2017
1 Comment

The Owatonna area is one of the first out-state communities to participate in a push to get people to complete advance directives. But only about 10 percent of people have advance directives, guidelines for dying, in their medical files, according to David Albrecht, president of Owatonna Hospital.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Can a cemetery be more than death plots?

Bob CollinsBob Collins August 18, 2016, 6:32 AM Aug 18, 2016
32 Comments

A cemetery is a destination venue, but perhaps there are better ways to attract people to them than dying and funerals.

That’s the most fascinating aspect of the brouhaha over plans for a hot rod show at a Roseville cemetery: its directors want people to come visit without having it be about dying. Read more →

In funeral industry’s green wave, the sewage plant is the new cemetery

Bob CollinsBob Collins June 22, 2016, 8:57 AM Jun 22, 2016
10 Comments

By today’s standards of what to do with dead people, dying is really bad for the environment. Chemicals used in embalming, for example, eventually leach into the earth. Cremation pollutes the air (about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide), and there’s the whole use of greenhouse gasses thing to consider.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Business is dying in the funeral industry

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 16, 2016, 9:03 AM May 16, 2016
29 Comments

Families who opt for cremation spend 42 cents on the dollar compared to the traditional funeral. That’s inflicted a toll on many in the industry who haven’t adapted.
Read more →

Health

La Crosse: The town that knows how to die

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 28, 2015, 8:36 AM May 28, 2015
2 Comments

For several decades, planning for death has been part of the health care regimen in La Crosse, not much different than having blood pressure checked. Read more →

Arts & Culture

Amid sorrow of child’s loss, a vow to tell life stories

Bob CollinsBob Collins April 6, 2015, 10:54 AM Apr 6, 2015
6 Comments

Stuart Schumacher finds something new every time he reads a recent obituary for a 4-year-old boy. The boy’s name was Evan, and Schumacher wrote the obituary in the hours after he lost his son. Read more →

Health

A journalist, a dying husband, and talk show ethics

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 25, 2015, 12:42 PM Feb 25, 2015
9 Comments

Elizabeth Jensen, the new NPR ombudsman, is tackling a favorite subject for us today: At what point is a journalist unable to function as a journalist because of first-person experiences with an issue? Read more →

Health

Author’s coming death makes him view life differently

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 19, 2015, 11:52 AM Feb 19, 2015
4 Comments

Oliver Sacks, 81, the neurologist and author, found out he’s dying soon. He writes today about his new outlook on life and wants us to rethink our own lives.
Read more →

Health · People doing good

Dying man leaves better lives behind

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 6, 2015, 10:23 AM Feb 6, 2015
4 Comments

Bob Karlstand, a Vietnam veteran, is dying by colon cancer and lung disease. He was an only child. His parents are gone. He never married. He has no family.

He’s given all his possessions away. He’s given his home to Habitat for Humanity. He’s given his retirement fund to the nursing program at the University of Minnesota. That’s $1 million.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

The green goodbye

Bob CollinsBob Collins December 15, 2014, 10:51 AM Dec 15, 2014

A local non-profit in Seattle wants to compost dead people. Read more →

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