Firstly, helping break the taboo about freely discussing death and dying - through dinner-discussions for all ages, meetings and contacts with the media.
Secondly, encouraging people to prepare for dying well in advance - through:
- All day workshops entitled 'Exploring Our Own Death';
- One-day course for those looking after a dying person at home (and for nurses);
- Collecting and publicising accounts of near-death experiences and dignified natural deaths;
- Helping people draw up 'living wills' which state how much high-tech medical intervention they want if suffering from a terminal illness;
- (In the longer term) building up a network of people, preferably people who have had near-death experiences themselves, who can act as informal 'midwives for the dying' and can give counselling and spiritual help (if desired) to the dying person and the family;
Thirdly, helping the average family take back control of the process of dying from the big institutions - through:
- Generating more support for those dying at home, both from the authorities and the surrounding neighbourhood, so that the majority of people can die at home in familiar surroundings, rather than in hospitals;
- Researching into the alleviation of suffering for the dying; and into alternatives to euthanasia such as fasting;
- Preparing a manual, 'The Natural Death Handbook';
- Drawing up a 'Declaration of the Dying Person's Rights';
- Campaigning with the Office of Fair Trading and others to ensure that funeral wholesalers and undertakers will supply just coffins, without charging an excessive mark-up, to those members of the public who wish to organise a funeral themselves; for a regulation similar to the 1984 American one compelling all funeral directors to give price breakdowns on request over the phone and written price lists to visitors; and for a Natural Death Law giving legal recognition to 'Living Wills'.
- Acting as a consumer body, available by phone or letter, for unbiased information, referrals and recommendations about, for instance, who are the good healers, counsellors, undertakers, etc throughout the UK, ideas and suggestions for new funeral rituals and how to get a cheap, green or 'DIY' funeral (see the article on this last below).
- Helping people to set up their own independently run Natural Death networks in their own regions or countries.
The Natural Death Centre, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 081 208 2853; fax 081 452 6434). The Natural Death Handbook (published September 1993) can be ordered from this address for L13-95, incl. p&p.