Dr. Atul Gawande on the Daily Show last night discussing his newest book ‘Being Mortal‘ where he discusses the quality of life options for terminally ill patients that focus on having honest conversations at end of life with family and friends rather than exhausting all medical treatment possibilities and how stopping treatment early can sometimes extend life longer than medical treatments and often lead to great fulfillment.
About 2 minutes into this segment Dr. Gawande discusses the conversations that he had with his terminally ill father who’s commitment continuing to do good work for the Rotary Foundation was critically important to him in the last few months of life.
I had the pleasure of meeting both Dr. Atul Gawande and his father when his father was Rotary District Governor in the Athens, Ohio area. I represented the R. I. President at his District conference which was held at Ohio University in Athens.
Both Atul and his father are sensitive people and it would be worthwhile reading Atul’s other books as well.
Abraham I. Gordon PRIVP