The purpose of this paper is to describe 1.) the Death Education and Suicide Behavior course offered at the University of Maryland; 2.) the comments of the students both before and after the course as a means of determining any effect of the course; and 3.) some insights gained from teaching taboo topics such as human death and sexuality. The course syllabus includes the varied biological, psychoanalytic, and non-psychoanalytic theories of death; examination of the philosophical thought of the great eastern and western philosophers and religions; discussion of bereavement, mourning, and grief; exploration of suicidal behavior and the relationship between human sexuality and suicide; and study of the "socially-dead": the aged, ugly, handicapped, and other outcasts of society. The importance of small group discussions and individual counseling, in addition to the course lectures, is discussed, as well as the developmental stages which students enrolled in a death education class seem to evolve. Reactions of students to the course and initial reasons for wanting to take the course are also examined. References are included. (Author/SES)