Death for many Baby Boomers is becoming something to control – an event to arrange and manage. This can be upsetting for family and friends who have different ideas on how end of life should be managed. On the positive side, it’s a way for those people who are infirm or have a life limiting disease to avoid, what they may consider, the indignities of medical intervention and the exhaustion of attention.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages and they experience fragility and debilitating diseases, they will demand greater control, deciding to decline doctor’s advice for sometimes painful treatments and life-extending measures. A good death to the Baby Boomers demographic group is not awarded to the oldest, but to those people who have lived well up to the very end of their life.

Baby boomers have been a resourceful and self-assured generation. Their protests in the 1960s and 70s were as enthusiastic as their embrace of affluence and security in the 1980s. Boomers have brought about reform in every social aspect of their generation.  So it’s not surprising that now, as they approach aging and the ends of their lives, many are choosing quality of life over quantity. That can involve planning a bucket list adventures, not accepting life extending treatments, and planning every detail of their deaths and memorial.

Boomers’ efforts to change the way we die are already in progress. Not wanting their only options to be to linger for years in nursing homes or die in palliative care unit, they are advocating for the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying within strictly controlled criteria. In the past decade, this movement has garnered a groundswell of support.

Resources to better plan end-of-life care decisions regarding care, housing, medical treatment, funeral and memorial options have also gained in uptake. Planned home deaths and personalised funerals are increasing in popularity. A number of bestselling books have brought these options to people’s attention, including Atul Gawande’s ’Being Mortal’, and Katy Butler’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’.

The Baby Boomer’s mantra in facing their own demise, is that there’s no harm in going out your own way.