( CNN ) -- For something that surrounds us so completely , bookending our lives , modern Americans can be surprisingly shy about death . Yes , we talk about `` deaths '' -- heinous deaths , tragic deaths , celebrity deaths , untimely deaths . But when it comes to death itself , many of us would rather use the broom of wishful thinking to sweep it away , leaving death to sit in some dark corner of our minds . Woody Allen best summed up that sentiment when he said , `` I do n't want to achieve immortality through my work ; I want to achieve immortality through not dying . '' For much of human history , religious rituals forced believers regularly to confront our ultimate fate . On Rosh Hashanah , according to Jewish tradition , God decides who will live or die during the next year . The Buddha urged monks to meditate on the decay of corpses . Millions of Catholics pray each week for Christ to come again and resurrect the dead . But this country is changing rapidly , and at the very time modern medicine puts life-or-death decisions in our hands , organized religion has faded from the lives of many Americans . As the surgeon and writer Atul Gawande noted in The New York Times recently , our medical system , powerful as it may be , is ill-equipped to step into the breach and answer crucial questions such as , `` What is a good death ? '' Perhaps that 's why Brittany Maynard 's death on November 1 stirred such remarkably personal debates . All at once , it seemed , we were confronting the question together : Given a choice , how would we wish to die ? In each of these articles , families from India to California were forced , by unlucky fate or divine providence , not only to articulate an answer , but to carry it out . My mother deserved to die with dignity . Maybe by reading their stories , we can learn something about how we want our own to conclude . An unforgettable lesson . Two women captured our hearts ; both were dying of brain cancer . Both taught us to cherish life -- that nothing is greater than the human spirit . Brittany Maynard fought for the right to die with dignity . Lauren Hill fought for a dream -- to play in a college basketball game before she dies . Read the full story > > . Death on their terms . Jena Johnson 's profession is not one that anyone goes to college for . It 's also not work that gets easier with time . Her job with end-of-life advocacy group Compassion & Choices is to help people die a `` good death . '' She found herself in that role in part because no one likes to talk about this stuff . Read the full story > > . Hotel Death . It 's a place of celebration , where dying guests are promised freedom for their souls . And where one man , whose father is No . 14,544 in the ledger , finds himself torn between two worlds . To give his father this final gift means being away from his wife , his daughter and a situation of utmost urgency . Read the full story > > . Death , American style . Once it was displayed openly . Then it became a forbidden subject . Now , at last , death in America is starting to come out of its cold , hard shell -- in unexpected ways . Meet an author who explores the various ways people process death , and why they choose certain rituals and memorials . Read the full story > > . Angels of mercy . To care for someone who is dying is probably the most difficult job in the world . Kerry Egan should know ; she 's a hospice chaplain and has seen families endure years of exhausting , heartbreaking and bone-crushing work . These , she says , are the real-life angels of mercy . Read the full story > > . Engineering the end . In choosing doctors , hospitals and treatments , Mike Mikula 's mother -- a retired schoolteacher , nurse and hospice volunteer -- had always been a fierce advocate for her husband 's health . Now she became a fierce advocate for his death . Mikula tells how planning for loss helped his family through it . Read the full story > > . The gift of Charles . He was a troubled 13-year-old when he finally found a home , with parents and siblings who embraced him . But Charles Daniel would live only two more years . It was time enough to change everything -- and everyone . Wayne Drash chronicles the family 's final days together in hospice . Read the full story > > .
Medicine has put end-of-life choices in our hands , but can it offer a `` good death '' ? Religion and its rituals often help believers confront their fate , but its influence has faded for many . With Brittany Maynard 's death , many asked : Given a choice , how would we wish to die ? The answer is that the decision should be made by you - not your doctor or anyone else.