We are pleased to introduce the inaugural issue of the Michigan Family Review (MFR). This new publication, sponsored by the Michigan Council on Family Relations, will provide a means of communication about current critical issues facing families in Michigan and across the country. MFR is an interdisciplinary publication focused on scholarly inquiry and professional application in a variety of fields, with an emphasis on the needs of practitioners who provide services and education to families, of community and citizen action groups, and of family members themselves.In this first issue titled Living and Dying: Family Decisions, the invited articles and book reviews focus on a theme that connects two universal developmental processes in families. In one way or another, death--like birth--is often considered a family event. Tending to health, illness, and death is typically a function and responsibility of families. Of all human groups, families may be the most intimate, with strong and significant interpersonal bonds among members. These relationships are expected to last a lifetime; however, when death occurs--whether sudden or expected--social, emotional, and economic consequences result that have enduring impacts on families and individuals at all ages of the lifespan (Sigelman & Shaffer, 1995).The certainty of death is a fact that every person must at some time accept. How a person goes through the process of dying and accepts death, however, is closely linked to the way the person's society and culture view the process. A person's family and friends, cultural values, and medical and social institutions all comprise part of the context in which individuals die. (Dudley, 1992, p.13.)The social and cultural experiences of individuals within families, their emotional lives and personalities, their ages at the time of the death, and their economic roles and responsibilities in society will interact and contribute subtly to the ways in which family members cope with death. For example, research with adults who lost a parent during childhood indicates that their perceptions of care and protection after the loss predict their current attachments and openness to social support many years later (Blume & Glickfield, 1994).In contemporary society, decision making about living and dying has become a critical concern of families and has assumed a new moral significance. Recent scientific knowledge about disease prevention, improvements in health care delivery, and--especially--increasingly sophisticated medical technology make it possible to maintain life beyond what was possible just a few decades ago. As a result, family members as well as health care professionals are faced with increasingly complex medical-ethical decisions surrounding living and dying (Fraser & Stum, 1994; Nelson, 1992).During the past few years, the state of Michigan has been in the national spotlight of issues surrounding decision making and dying. The controversial cases of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, whose activities raised legal and ethical questions regarding physician-assisted suicide, and of Dr. Gregory Messenger, who was recently found innocent in the death in his premature infant son after disconnecting mechanical life support, clearly have placed Michigan residents in the public eye (Stein, 1995).In April 1995 the Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio Councils on Family Relations are meeting jointly to discuss Living and Dying: 21st Century Decisions. Because of advances in health, medicine, and related technical know-how, individuals and families have become increasingly dependent on professionals for help in deciding how to handle the chronic illness and death management of loved ones, as well as the legal and economic aspects of living and dying. Also at issue are questions surrounding the best interest of persons who are unable to make their own decisions and individual/family control versus external autonomy in controversial areas such as providing life support, palliative care services, and assisted suicide. …