1. Why are people less familiar with death than they were 100 years ago? What impact might this have?

2. According to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, what determined a person’s fate after death?

3. What is one example of contrasting rituals about death?

4. What should parents remember when talking with children about death?

5. How does terror management theory explain young people’s risk taking?

6. How does parenthood affect people’s thoughts about their own death?

7. How do attitudes about death shift in late adulthood? What evidence is there of this shift?

8. In what ways do people change after a near-death experience?

9. What is a good death?

10. According to Kübler-Ross, what are the five stages of emotions associated with dying? Why doesn’t everyone agree with Kübler-Ross’s stages?

11. What are the guiding principles of hospice care, and why is each one important?

12. Why is the double effect legal everywhere, even though it speeds death?

13. What differences of opinion are there with respect to the definition of death?

14. What is the difference between passive and active euthanasia?

15. What are the four conditions of physician-assisted “death with dignity” in Oregon? Why is each condition important?

16. Why would a person who has a living will also need a health care proxy?

17. What is grief, and what are some of its signs?

18. List three types of complicated grief. Why is each type considered “complicated”?

19. What are the purposes of mourning?

20. How can a grieving person find meaning in death?

21. How might reactions such as talking to the deceased make it both easier and more difficult to adjust to the death of a loved one?

22. If a person still feels a loss six months after a death, is that pathological?

23. What should friends and relatives remember when helping someone who is grieving?