Weekly News 10/19/2015: UK tops Quality of Death Index

On the blog this week we highlighted the findings from the recently published EIU Quality of Death Index. In the news, we gained insight into what it takes for medical personnel to declare someone dead, what it is like to be an embalmer, and how crisis teams offer assistance after a homicide. We encourage you to watch Gail Rubin deliver a powerful TedX talk about end-of-life issues and the need to preplan.

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Weekly News 10/19/2015: EIU tops Quality of Death Index

Veteran asks for military burial for combat dog that was shot and killed

Oct 17, 2015–usatoday.com: An Army veteran is asking for a burial with military honors for his dog that was shot and killed outside Powell. Matthew Bessler’s 10-year-old Belgian Malinois named Mike was shot and killed last Saturday by a bicyclist who says the dog attacked him… Read the full story

Pronouncing death not always easy, expert says

Oct 17, 2015–buffalonews.com: Dr. Albert J. Kirshen has pronounced hundreds of patients dead during a nearly 40-year career in palliative medicine, and he says that decision can be a time-consuming process. And reaching that decision of whether someone is dead becomes more difficult in a busy emergency room, he said… Read the full story

The Lonely Death of George Bell

Oct 17, 2015–nytimes.com: They found him in the living room, crumpled up on the mottled carpet. The police did. Sniffing a fetid odor, a neighbor had called 911. The apartment was in north-central Queens, in an unassertive building on 79th Street in Jackson Heights. The apartment belonged to a George Bell. He lived alone… Read the full story

Funerals were the weddings of the past

Oct 17, 2015–newbernsj.com: North Carolina’s last colonial governor, Josiah Martin, had a young son whom he described as his “best friend.” The child died while the Martins lived in New Bern and, deep in grief, the governor sent a letter to his father, living in the Caribbean island of Antigua to inform him. To warn the old man what news the letter carried, he sealed it with black wax… Read the full story

Here’s what it’s REALLY like to be an embalmer

Oct 16, 2015–businessinsider.com: Preserving dead bodies for a living might seem weird or creepy or depressing. “But it’s actually one of the most rewarding jobs in the world,” says John “Jack” Mitchell IV, a sixth generation funeral director and embalmer. After graduating from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s in business management in 1993, Mitchell returned home to start serving his apprenticeship at his family’s funeral home while attending the Mortuary Science program at Catonsville Community College outside of Baltimore… Read the full story

Dare to Be 100: How to Die

Oct 15, 2015–huffingtonpost.com: Death and dying have been receiving a lot of coverage lately. Our California Assisted Suicide Initiative was front page news for a week. My blog of last week celebrated its passage. Atul Gawande’s best-selling book Being Mortal has received much critical acclaim for its tender rendering of the myriad currents that surround the end of being alive, both for the individual and importantly for all persons concerned with this transition… Read the full story

After a homicide, crisis teams offer aid on grieving, vigils, police procedure

Oct 15, 2015–chicagotribune.com: Dawn Valenti can still hear the pain in the voice of a Roseland mother the moment the woman learned she had lost a second son to gun violence within a year. “What can you possibly tell me?” a sobbing Stephanie Franklin asked Valenti as she dropped to her knees at the crime scene. Franklin stared into the headlights of her bullet-pocked Pontiac Bonneville, which her son Shamari Salter, 20, had driven to Champaign to enroll in Parkland College that day in late spring. He and two friends were sitting in the car when they were ambushed shortly after he returned to the neighborhood. All three died from their injuries… Read the full story

Funeral for one: Why burial decisions still matter when you don’t have kids

Oct 15, 2015–chicagotribute.com: Looking ahead to end-of-life decisions is never easy. But having children, or close family members, sometimes tidies the to-do list. You choose a burial site where your kids can easily travel. There’s an obvious loved one to handle all the decisions and paperwork. So individuals who don’t have children — or any close family nearby, or at all — may be tempted to think preplanning is irrelevant… Read the full story

Millennials Attended Their Own Funerals & Found The Meaning Of Life, Kind Of

Oct 14, 2015–bustle.com: If you haven’t realized your worst fear yet, I suggest you give this Elite Daily video of Millennials attending their own funerals a quick watch. I did, and now I know that I will never voluntarily climb inside of a coffin unless someone was going to pay me with NYC pizza and a personal appearance by a talking Pizza Rat. It seems like these guys and girls are handling themselves much better than I would be… Read the full story