IN PERSON: It’s not easy to grow old and face death in 21st century America. Factors such as medical overtreatment at the end of life, the rapidly growing “warehousing” of the elderly and demented, and the “epidemic” of loneliness and isolation have all emerged to render our lives and deaths increasingly hazardous and complicated. The Death Positivity Movement is the grassroots response to these developments. It ranges from Green Burial to Death Cafes, from home funerals to various forms of assisted dying. Death Positivity is an intergenerational endeavor to redefine our lives in the frame of death; rather than turn away from thoughts and conversations about aging and dying, it embraces new and creative ways of thinking about how our deaths can make our lives - and the stories we leave behind - more meaningful. Through case studies and conversation, this in-person course will explore the possibility that death can be a superior life coach. | Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 12.
Location: Judea Reform Congregation, 1933 W. Cornwallis Rd, Durham NC 27705
Dr. Kathy Rudy holds an MDiv and PhD in Theological Ethics from Duke, and was a faculty member in Duke’s Women’s Studies/Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies department for thirty years. Her classes and academic writing revolve around a wide range of ethical problems, including abortion, IVF and reproductive technologies, AIDS, sexual ethics, ethical use of non-human animals, and ethics at the end-of-life. She has been facilitating Southwest Durham Library’s Death Café since 2023.