In 2016–17, JoAnn Mar produced a series of six short feature-length reports on different aspects of care at the end of life. The topics covered are advance care planning, palliative care, advance directives, physician-assisted dying, death goes public (about death cafés and death-over-dinner events), and music at the end of life. In 2018, I added two reports on the issues of end-of-life care for minorities—African Americans, Asians, and Latinos. The first four reports were made possible by the Association of Health Care Journalists, KALW, and The Commonwealth Fund. The sixth report (on music) was made possible by New America Media, The Gerontological Society of America, AARP, and KALW. The seventh and eighth reports were made possible by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2018 California Fellowship.
Cover photo: Brittany Manard and her dog Charlie. On June 9, 2016, physician aid-in-dying became legal in California. The new “End Of Life Option Act” allows terminally ill people to hasten their deaths. Opinion polls have shown strong support for assisted-dying over the last thirty years. But Catholic Church leaders and medical groups have beaten … Continued
Cover photo: Luca Singer, former resident of Zen Hospice Project. Modern medicine has cured diseases and brought great advances that were unimaginable a hundred years ago. The average life span has nearly doubled during the last century. While people are living longer, they’re now facing health challenges that hadn’t existed before—severe chronic illness, dementia, and … Continued
Cover photo: Dr. Dawn Gross and her family in the KALW studios. “Death” is a subject that doesn’t come up in many conversations. Most of us instinctively turn away from such morbid thoughts. All of us will die some day. Yet, thinking about death, planning for the end of life is just too difficult. But … Continued
