Attitudes toward death : a climate of change -- Learning about death : the influence of sociocultural forces -- Perspectives on death : cultural and historical -- Death systems : mortality and society -- Health care : patients, staff, and institutions -- End-of-life issues and decisions -- Facing death : living with life-threatening illness -- Last rites : funerals and body disposition -- Survivors : understanding the experience of loss -- Death in the lives of children and adolescents -- Death in the lives of adults -- Suicide -- Threats of horrendous death -- Beyond death/after life -- The path ahead : personal and social choices.