end-of-life decisions
Incurable condition
Not every ailment can be fixed—or should be. Atul Gawande thinks we need to talk about this.
by LaVonne Neff
All people die with dignity
What troubles me greatly about Oregon’s law—and the movement for more like it—is its name.
Letters and Papers from Prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison comes under the category of “Books to Be Read on an Annual Basis”—like Augustine’s Confessions, King Lear, or anything by Flannery O’Connor. In general, we read too many books and return to too few.
Let’s talk about death: End-of-life decisions
It’s tempting to blame partisan politics for last summer’s debacle over “death panels” and the very idea of doctors and patients holding conversations about the end of life. But the truth is: these conversations are difficult. Although some people welcome them, others approach the subject of death cautiously. Many of us would rather not explore what awaits us in the final years or weeks of life. Perhaps this reluctance explains why only one in five Americans has completed an advance directive for medical care.