ABC Health and Wellbeing: Death is a lot like birth. Sometimes it’s a peaceful, even beautiful event that goes according to plan. Sometimes it’s a horrible bloody mess that is utterly beyond all control. Most of the time, it’s a bit of both.
We have this idea that death is something that just happens to us. It’s true, you will, at some point, die, and that is not subject to negotiation with any earthly power.
But that doesn’t mean that we are powerless in the face of death. Some of us can actually have a lot of say in the kind of death we have …
But to realize these choices, we need to do something that most of us would rather avoid – we need to talk about death. This can be difficult to bring up, especially if the people you need to talk about it with are determined to avoid the subject.
The Conversation Project – a US-based organization started by a group of concerned doctors, religious leaders and media – provides an online toolkit to help people have “The Conversation” with their loved ones.