Following the bubonic plague of the 14th century, which decimated two thirds of Europe's population, the Roman Catholic Church responded with a call for the articulation of an ars moriendi, or art of dying, that could guide laypersons in their preparation for death. The body of literature that resulted shaped both religious and secular practices in the West for hundreds of years. But by the middle of the 20th century, technology's ability to delay the moment of death fostered a "medicalized" death. Physicians Lydia Dugdale and Thomas Duffy discuss what this has meant for individuals in the current age, and how medicine might better prepare patients and their families for their final hours.