“The ICU was not the thrill ride I had expected. Turns out, they never called the high school student in from the reception desk to assist the doctors in lifesaving procedures. Instead, the job entailed hours of watching incredibly worried… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share Image
“Dead people look very, very dead. It is difficult to grasp what that means, since it’s unlikely that any of us will stumble across… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“The most salacious stories—bones ground in a metal blender or torture-spike eye caps—had the power to disrupt people’s polite complacency about death. Rather than… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“We do not (and will not) have the resources to properly care for our increasing elderly population, yet we insist on medical intervention to… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“He explained that he talks about death "all the time" with his friends. They ask each other, "Hey, what you want when you die?"… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Many children and grandchildren of immigrants, have, like Sarah, found themselves severed from their family’s cultural rituals. The funeral system in the United States… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“I have come to believe that the merits of a death custom are not based on mathematics (e.g., 36.7 percent a "barbarous act"), but… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“It was death that the public was being cheated out of by the funeral industry, not money. The realistic interaction with death and the… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Exposing a young child to the realities of love and death is far less dangerous than exposing them to the lie of the happy… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Rather than let author and environmentalist Edward Abbey be buried in a traditional cemetery, his friends stole his body, wrapped it in a sleeping… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“The ICU was not the thrill ride I had expected. Turns out, they never called the high school student in from the reception desk… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Death should be known. Known as a difficult mental, physical, and emotional process, respected and feared for what it is.” — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Untreated, a dead person’s face looks horrific, at least by our very narrow cultural expectations. Their droopy, open eyes cloud over in a vacant… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“It is worth noting that the main players in the recomposition project are women—scientists, anthropologists, lawyers, architects. Educated women, who have the privilege to… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“Death might appear to destroy the meaning in our lives, but in fact it is the very source of our creativity. As Kafka said,… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
“As a general rule, if anyone ever asks you to put stockings on a ninety-year-old deceased Romanian woman with edema, your answer should be… — Caitlin Doughty Copy Share
