Atul Gawande has taken a new direction with this book; still exploring what it takes to make our lives - both as a doctor and as a patient - better, this time he looks at the end of our lives. With death both natural and inevitable, what interventions are the most useful? What merely prolongs suffering, and what makes life more worth living- what gives us better, rather than just longer lives? What interventions actually make things worse?
Aside from the critical, end-of-life stages, what about the later years? At what point is it time to seek assistance, and when do we have to turn over autonomy? Intriguingly, do we ever have to turn over autonomy? He shares his research about these questions and some answers to them - good answers that are surprising in both what they have in common and what they do not.
Reading this was enlightening for me: Knowing that we all die, and that we all grow old (if we're lucky) - is not the same as thinking about those facts, and knowing how to deal with them. Thought-provoking and informative, a straightforward read with beautifully clear prose; my favorite kind of non-fiction.
Aside from the critical, end-of-life stages, what about the later years? At what point is it time to seek assistance, and when do we have to turn over autonomy? Intriguingly, do we ever have to turn over autonomy? He shares his research about these questions and some answers to them - good answers that are surprising in both what they have in common and what they do not.
Reading this was enlightening for me: Knowing that we all die, and that we all grow old (if we're lucky) - is not the same as thinking about those facts, and knowing how to deal with them. Thought-provoking and informative, a straightforward read with beautifully clear prose; my favorite kind of non-fiction.
