Designing a Good Death

Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us all, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Yet acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of death doulas to assist in the dying process, even green burials and body composting, make it possible to end life on our own terms. Reimagining death before we close our eyes one final time liberates us to celebrate the moments we have so much more fully.

This conversation was a part of Aspen Ideas: Health 2023.

Aspen Ideas is an annual health gathering of healthcare and public health practitioners, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, advocates, artists, and journalists around the globe to elevate and accelerate bold approaches to better health for all. Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of death doulas to assist in the dying process, even green burials and body composting, make it possible to end life on our own terms. Panelist include:

• Dr. Lucy Goddard Kalanithi, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and an advocate for culture change around healthcare value. She is the widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir When Breath Becomes Air.

• Dan Diaz: Dan Diaz, Compassion & Choices contractor, medical-aid-in-dying advocate, husband to the late Britney Maynard.

• Alua Arthur: Founder of Going with Grace, death doula and innovator in the field of end-of-life care. Was on the cover of Compassion & Choices magazine in the summer 2023.

• Katrina Spade: Founder of Recompose, a company that supports human composting and working to legalize it in more states and, eventually, around the world.

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