Death is not necessarily a comfortable topic for any of us. We want to avoid thinking about it until we absolutely have to or when we become seriously ill or are in a car crash. Many of us even pretend that death will never happen to us. The truth is none of us can avoid death. This is a passage that we will all have to go through. It's a final passage mind you, and because of this, it has a lot of negative connotations for most of us. 

Given our culture of secrecy about death, I believe the first step to having a good death is to open discussions about death and dying so that we can become more comfortable talking about death. We have to stop thinking of death as a taboo topic. 

In A Good Death, Irene S. Switankowsky shows the reader how to become more comfortable with the whole idea of death and how to be ready to make that transition when the time comes for us. Ms. Roth will accomplish this by outlining some key principles that when followed will help us make an informed consent about all the details of dying. And an informed death is a good death!