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Planning for our own death is a gift we can give to ourself. But it can be an even greater gift to those we leave behind, freeing them from the pressure of having to make end-of-life decisions on our behalf without knowing what our wishes really were. These videos offer insights into why and how to give the gift of planning.

It’s one thing to get educated about end-of-life planning issues. But it can be another very big step to start a conversation about death with our family members or friends. In these videos, people who have taken that step offer some suggestions on how to approach the topic and open the conversation with others.

Planning for death is a new task for most of us. In addition to reading books or articles, it can be helpful to hear firsthand from others how they approached their end-of-life planning and what they learned from the process. In these videos you’ll hear others share their experience and offer tips on how to plan for death.

Betsy Carpenter serves as Instructor for Advance Directives at Stanford Medical Center, and offers seminars on advance directives to hospitals, senior centers, churches, and other groups. In these videos, Betsy offers advice on completing your advance directives, and how to choose and work with your health care agent.

On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying
This four-part, six-hour series produced by Bill Moyers and PBS goes from the bedsides of the dying to the front lines of a movement to improve end-of-life care.

Consider the Conversation
This documentary sheds light on death, a natural life event that many avoid talking about. Throughout the film, there are intimate accounts of the emotional, spiritual, physical and social burdens associated with the historical shift that has occurred with dying. Forty years ago, most people experienced a quick death, but today we are more likely to face a slow, incremental dying process.

Dying At Grace
Five terminally ill cancer patients allowed the director access to their final months and days inside the Toronto Grace Health Care Center. The result is an unflinching, enormously empathetic contemplation of death, featuring a handful of the most memorable people ever captured on film.

Bucket List
2007: Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
1994: Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love.

Departures
2008: A newly unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals.

Death at a Funeral
(British Version) 2007: Chaos ensues when a man tries to expose a dark secret regarding a recently deceased patriarch of a dysfunctional British family.

Little Miss Sunshine
2006 A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

Death to Smoochy
2002: Kids show host Rainbow Randolph is fired in disgrace while his replacement, Sheldon Mopes, aka Smoochy the Rhino, finds himself a rising star. Unfortunately for Sheldon, the kid’s TV business isn’t all child’s play.