NEW YORK: The simple view is that medicine exists to fight death and disease and that is, of course, its most basic task. Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces.
Eventually, it wins. And in a war that you cannot win, you don’t want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation.
There is a need for a shift away from the medicalization of mortality towards common sense and kindness. Less intervention, more conversation.
Fewer hospital procedures and more hospice-type care, where someone is made comfortable and allowed to get on with enjoying life.
Doctors often can’t face telling their patients of a poor prognosis.
Indeed, research shows that the more a doctor likes a patient, the less likely he is to give bad news.
Yet, oddly, patients are much happier when they are given the facts and able to discuss their hopes and fears accordingly.
Almost everyone says they’d like to die at home.
Research shows that family members are much less likely to suffer from depression if the deceased died at home rather than in intensive care.
It also makes economic sense.