"There's really a chance here to profoundly reinvent the American concept of death, " says Joe Sehee, international director of the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit that certifies sustainable cemeteries.

WSJ: Recycling Project: Green Cemeteries | WSJ.Money Summer 2013

Nursing professor Karen Kehl, in an article called "Moving Toward Peace: An Analysis of the Concept of a Good Death, " ranked the attributes of a graceful death, among them: being comfortable and in control, having a sense of closure, making the most of relationships and having family involved in care.

WSJ: Why Doctors Die Differently

In it, her father concluded that the concept of happiness can't apply to God and that, as long as pain and death are in the world, it can't apply to humans either.

WSJ: Book Review: Is God Happy?