“I experienced a kind of grief that I had never known.” This was how Bill Bartholome of Kansas City spoke about discovering that he was going to die from cancer of the esophagus. “The pain was not in the same league as the suffering,” he went on to explain, “but, you move down the road, and it becomes okay.”

This statement comes from the first segment of Bill Moyers’ four-part, six-hour blockbuster television series called “On Our Own Terms.” This series, which carries the subtitle “Moyers on Dying,” will be shown this month on many public television stations across the country.

Boston’s Channel 2 will broadcast it, September 10 through 13, at 9:30 in the evening.  New Hampshire’s Channel 11 will show the first two parts at 9:00 PM on September 16 and the last two on September 23. Both stations have scheduled repeat showings at other times, with Boston’s airing on Channel 44.

For people concerned about end-of-life spiritual issues, as well as the whole range of medical and other subjects connected with death and dying, this series deserves careful watching. Previewing the tapes as I have done enables me to recommend it enthusiastically as a uniquely valuable and moving experience.

It is by no means always easy to watch. Viewers are shown real-life scenes of human suffering and the devastation wrought by disease. At the same time, one also comes close to the beauty of the human spirit, – the courage and devotion of people who undergo the experience of dying and of those who serve them. There were times in the series when I felt tears come to my eyes and when I felt stirred to admiration of my fellow humans.

Bill Bartholme, himself a physician, is among the first persons whose dying is traced in this fine documentary. Though he was himself a full professor in his medical school and attached to its hospital, “his experience as a patient was devastating.” No one among the medical personnel took his pain seriously and, at  a time when he needed attention, he was left to fend for himself on a cot in a hospital corridor.

Vital to his functioning in his last few months of life was the decision of his fiancée, Pam, to marry him. “I could not believe that she would do it,” said Bill. But for Pam it was an expression of a love that could not be damaged by the prospect of Bill’s death but only strengthened.

They decide that, for Bill, treatments aimed at a cure do not make sense. Instead, they instruct their medical team to focus on the relief of pain and on other measures to help him prepare for a good death.

In the meantime, Bill finds that the knowledge of death’s nearness enhances his experience of living. “If you don’t expect to see spring when fall comes and then you are around and get to see spring,” he says, “you don’t experience it as spring. You experience it as a miracle.”

Throughout the running time of six hours, one meets other people who are facing death in the near future. And one gets to know physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals who are trying to change the way in which hospitals and individual caregivers provide services to the dying.

Some of these professionals belong to so-called palliative care teams that make it their business to deal with the pain and discomfort of patients for whom a cure is no longer realistic. I found it inspiring to see such professionals going against the system to defend the rights of their patients to die without undergoing further treatments that cannot help them and may possibly increase their suffering.

Bill Moyers and his collaborators have announced ambitious goals for this series. They want to begin a national conversation about improving the way  Americans die. They hope to spark discussion all across the country about the issues that surround death and dying.

The crucial issues that the series takes on include the following: fear of dying in pain; concern about being a burden on family and loved ones; acute financial stress; fear of dying alone; loss of control and dignity.

A free information packet is available. To get it after the broadcast, you can call 800 962-2973. You can also find material on the web at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/onourownterms/community/index.html

Richard Griffin