Featured scholar: Sam Kargbo. // That life comes to an end is hardly news, but public conversations about death seem to be growing more urgent. Brittany Maynard ended her own life at age 29, rather than die slowly of brain cancer; thousands of people are attending social events designed to explore their choices about death; Ebola undermined the burial rituals so important to the people of Sierra Leone; and "Dying in America," the Institute of Medicine’s new report, has highlighted many opportunities to improve end-of-life care. How can our medical and social systems support or hinder dying? Do we have the right to bend the arc of our own death, or that of a loved one? How can we approach the final passage with grace?