A Celebration of the Life of Dr. Karen J. Warren

“Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end.”

-Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Death is a reality of life. It is a part of life. It is an inevitable reality of being human. One day, we will all die. And yet, it is a reality that many of us don’t want to think about.

This blog post is a biographical tribute to the life and death of my mother, Dr. Karen Joyce Warren. An ecological feminist philosopher, Karen was diagnosed with a terminal, neurodegenerative illness in 2016. Since that time, she used philosophical arguments to promote conversation about end-of-life options for those diagnosed with terminal illnesses. She co-authored two posts with me for Psychology Today: one practical commentary on her personal experiences confronting death and a second advocating for end-of-life options.

My mother’s death leaves me feeling profound sadness mixed with relief. Although her illness made the last few years of her life physically and emotionally challenging, the last couple of months were particularly painful to witness because I knew that she did not want to live in such a pained and impaired physical state.