I just read Final Exam by Pauline Chen and Dying Well by Ira Byock. Final Exam looks at how the medical culture deals with death, from the first cadaver dissection up to the patients you will eventually kill (the author is a liver transplant surgeon). Dying Well uses vignettes about patients to illustrate some of the ways that people face death. Dr. Byock emphasizes the more "positive" cases as models for how he believes that end-of-life care should be handled, and I believe it is a book that should be read by doctors, patients, and family/friends alike. Dr. Byock is a leader in the field of palliative care and the stories are told from his position as a compassionate, dedicated physician.
I hope this is of help to you; it's something in which I have recently become very interested and feel as though it is overlooked in many situations.
