All this week, The Spinoff will be talking about death – the process, the aftermath, the reality.

Read all the stories from Death Week 2023 here.

Some topics will never get old or go out of style because they’ll never change. Death is one of those topics. Whether we like it or not (and we usually don’t), death becomes a topic of conversation more and more as we get older. Last year we ran a Death Week series on site, figuring perhaps we could cover a good range of stories about the end. And while we did (from the cost of dying to the rise of “eco deaths” and profiling those who work around death every day) we barely scratched the surface. So this year we’re back, again with the support of our friends at AA Life Insurance, to talk about the things we often would rather not dwell on.

I renewed my licence not long ago, and in the process I ticked “yes” to the question asking if I would be willing to donate my organs in the event of an accident. I had ticked yes 10 years earlier without a second thought. Of course I’d donate my organs, why wouldn’t you? was my only reasoning at the time. A decade on, I had to think a bit harder before saying yes. In the interim, I had seen loved ones die and had heard of the unavoidably terrible reality of having your loved one’s body be wheeled away as soon as possible in order to retrieve their organs. I’d heard horror stories of abrasive and insensitive calls asking next of kin for their partner’s body parts moments after they’d died. And I’d heard more than one story of families overruling a person’s wishes and refusing to donate their organs.

So as I filled out the licence form again, I realised how that decision wasn’t just something for me to choose in that moment and never think about again (literally), it was something I’d have to talk through with my partner and family, to make sure they knew exactly what my wishes were and to ask them to respect those wishes, even while grieving. To be honest, I still haven’t had those conversations in a meaningful way, and writing this has once again reminded me that it needs to happen. Which is why we’re returning for Death Week 2024, because just as the topic never gets old, it’s always worth reminding ourselves to consider what we want to happen when it comes to our own death.

This week we’ll be covering a whole new slate of topics, beginning with this morning’s excellent cover story by T. Black investigating why New Zealand continues to have such a shortage of organ donors and donations. There are plenty of nuanced reasons – cultural and religious – why people don’t donate organs. But for many, it’s simply a fear of the unknown. Just like ticking a box on a licence form, there’s a lot that needs to happen to make us feel comfortable about donating organs. There’s education – around what’s involved and when it happens – so as not to shock whānau in their toughest times; there’s education for doctors and practitioners around how to communicate with people who are often in shock and distress; and there’s education (and funding) to communicate to society at large what organ donation means for those whose lives it saves.

In short, it’s a matter of awareness and discussion, which is what we’ll be doing this week. We’ll also be checking back in on the cost of dying, examining the phenomena of natural cemeteries, sharing stories about the mana of digging a grave, and looking in to the growth of water cremations globally and why New Zealand hasn’t gotten onboard (yet). All that and more.

Every story is designed to start a conversation or at the very least to make you consider something about death and dying that you’d never considered before. It might remind you that you’ve been meaning to write a will, or create an end of life plan, or get life insurance. Or maybe it’ll just make you remember your own loved ones who’ve gone before us, and nudge you to call someone to tell them you love them. Either way, we’re glad to have you here, at the beginning of the end.

All week long The Spinoff will be opening up about the end. Click here to read more of our Death Week content.