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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
#1 New York Times Bestseller In Being Mortal , bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.
About This Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller In Being Mortal , bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end. Read more
| ISBN-13 | 9780805095159 |
| ISBN-10 | 0805095159 |
| Publisher | Metropolitan Books |
| Publication Date | October 2014 |
| Edition | 1 |
| Pages | 304 |
| Language | English |
| Weight | 2 pounds |
Expert Analysis & Insights
In-depth editorial assessment across key dimensions
Exceptionally engaging, clear prose and narrative drive make complex, emotionally heavy topics accessible and memorable for all healthcare professionals.
Highly recommended for all clinicians as an empathetic, page-turning read that fundamentally shifts how one thinks about mortality.
Masterfully elucidates the disconnect between modern medicine's goals and elderly patients' well-being through compelling narrative. Widely praised as essential education on death and aging for clinicians.
Ideal for medical trainees and attendings seeking a transformative perspective on palliative care communication and the human side of aging.
Covers aging, frailty, nursing homes, assisted living, hospice, and physician-assisted death with profound humanistic insight and personal reflection.
Ideal for a broad, holistic understanding of the interface between aging, death, and medicine rather than disease-specific encyclopedic detail.
Frequently adopted by medical schools and residencies for teaching the hidden curriculum on mortality, geriatrics, and shared decision-making.
Excellent core reading for medical humanities, palliative care rotations, or ethics seminars across all healthcare training programs.
Delivers concrete, actionable examples of better care models (e.g., assisted living origins, hospice practices) and the simple question that reorients treatment goals.
Useful for practitioners designing quality improvement initiatives in geriatric or palliative care, or for personal communication skill development.
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