Bob CollinsLike many other issues, there is a reckoning coming on the issue.
But not until it gets talked about. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Death and dying
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 →
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 →
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 →
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.’
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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.
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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 →
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.
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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.
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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 →
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 →
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 →
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.
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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.
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A local non-profit in Seattle wants to compost dead people. Read more →