Being Mortal

Beacon Hill Village, the Boston program that created neighborhoodsupportfortheagedtostayintheirhomes, andshewasinspired.TheCohns ...

wheelchair.Evenwithbothofthemdisabledandintheir mideighties, they were able to make staying at home work. Myparentsand I talked ...

She’dmadeinstantlyclearthatwhatshecaredaboutwas himandhowhewasdoing,notabouthisdiseaseorhis diagnosis.Andshe’dletusknowthat,surr ...

He’d have a palliative care physician who couldhelp adjustmedicationsandothertreatmentstominimizehis nausea,pain,andothersymptom ...

Don’t call the police. Don’t call an ambulance company.Callus.Anursewillhelp.Shewilldiscardthe narcotics, arrange thedeath cert ...

He agreed to her instructions. In thedays that followed,itastonished meto see the difference thehospice’s two simple instruction ...

hisday lethimhavemorevisitors over.Soonheeven beganhostingpartiesatourhouseagain.Hefoundthatin thenarrowspaceofpossibilitythathi ...

differentkindofmedicine—makespossible,Ithoughtto myself. Here is what having a hard conversation can do. ...

8 •Courage In 380 BC,Platowroteadialogue,theLaches,inwhich Socrates and two Athenian generals seek to answer a seemingly simple ...

Now Nicias steps in. Courage, he argues, is simply “knowledgeofwhatisto befearedorhoped,either in warorinanythingelse.”But Socra ...

crampyabdominalpain,thennausea,andprogressedto vomiting.Heroncologistsenthertothehospital.Ascan showedher ovarian cancer had mul ...

was another matter. Like my father’s doctors, the oncologist and I had a menu ofoptions. Therewas a wholerangeofnewchemotherapyr ...

get back on her feet. Her biggest fear was that she wouldn’tbeabletolivelifeagainandenjoyit—thatshe wouldn’tbeabletoreturnhomean ...

Shedidn’tmakeit.Shecamebacktothehospitalthat samenight.Just thecarride,with allits swaying and bumps, set her vomiting again. Th ...

newmiseries.Shehad,Iestimatedforher,a 75 percent chance I’d make her future better, at least for a little while, and a 25 percen ...

stonepatientsreportedapainscoreoftenatleastonce during the procedure. Our natural assumptionis that the final ratingswould repre ...

Studies in numerous settings have confirmed the Peak-Endruleandourneglectofdurationofsuffering. Research hasalso shown that thep ...

pleasureandpainmissthisfundamentalaspectofhuman existence. A seemingly happy life may be empty. A seeminglydifficultlifemaybedev ...

sufferingworthwhile.Thepeaksareimportant,andsois the ending. JewelDouglassdidn’tknowifshewaswillingtofacethe suffering that surg ...

andrisky,thenI’djustputintubestodrainherbacked-up pipes. I’d aim to do what might have sounded like a contradictioninterms:apall ...