Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary Material -- Hospice and the Intangible Wonders of Being / Mary Josephine Mahoney -- ‘So That’s a Completely Different Story’: Competing Narratives in the Lives of Relatives Caring for Dying Patients / Jeremy Weinstein -- Death and the Sense of Self / Chris J. Onof -- Political Murder on the German Opera Stage Masagniello Furioso, Günther von Schwarzburg and Rienzi / Karl Traugott Goldbach -- Nurse Involvement in the Care for Patients Requesting Euthanasia / Nele De Bal , Bernadette Dierckx de Casterlé and Chris Gastmans -- Are We Barking Up the Wrong Tree? Questioning the Appropriateness of Human Models for Understanding Bereavement as Applied to the Experience of Companion Animal Loss through Euthanasia / Susan Dawson and Bill Campbell -- The Saying Hallo Metaphor as Alternative Approach to Death-Related Counselling / Werner Nell -- Remembering the Dead: Roadside Memorials in Ireland / Una MacConville and Regina McQuillan -- “Untitled” (Queer Mourning and the Art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres) / Emily Boone Hagenmaier -- Contributors.

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Dying and death are topics of deep humane concern for many people in a variety of circumstances and contexts. However, they are not discussed to any great extent or with sufficient focus in order to gain knowledge and understanding of their major features and aspects. The present volume is an attempt to bridge the undesirable gap between what should be known and understood about dying and death and what is easily accessible. Included in the present volume are chapters arranged in three sections. First, there are chapters on aspects of dying, written by people who have professional experience and personal insights into the nature of the processes at work and the ways it should be treated. Secondly, there are chapters on assisted death (Euthanasia) that illuminate the practices involved in the professional assistance given to persons who suffer from an incurable illness and who do not want their painful life to be medically extended. Thirdly, there are chapters on mourning, examined in a variety of cultural contexts. These provide insights for different ways of maintaining the presence of the dead in the life of the living: “life in the hearts”.