Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End image number 0

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune, now in paperback with a new reading group guide

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients' anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them.

In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures-in his own practices as well as others'-as life draws to a close. Riveting, honest, and humane, Being Mortal shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life-all the way to the very end.

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Gawande, Atul
ISBN: 9781250076229
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 8.10 x 0.70
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Year: 2017

Customer Reviews

Rating Snapshot

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7 Ratings

1 Recommendations

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Must read for anyone who loves the medical profession or an aging or disabled person

Would Recommend

Denise P. - 4 months ago

Awesome book. Anyone with aging parents and all caretakers of people with terminal or disabling illnesses should read it. Deeply personal and expert accounting of how to manage these most difficult situations with humanity.

Tags: Quick Read
Seismic insight on death and end of life decisions

Mary Beth P. - 5 years 7 months ago

Excellent & thought provoking. Not no-holes-barred do everything possible. Ultimate goal is not a good death, but a good life all the way to the end.
I would change nothing

Robin B. - 5 years 9 months ago

I’m ready to read it again and have shared what I have read with other hospice workers. Atul Gawande Is there insightful, fresh and refreshing. This wasn’t the easiest of reads but it speaks volumes.
Fascinating and Inspiring

Grace D. - 5 years 10 months ago

This is one of the most incredible books. It's inspiring and fascinating from beginning to end. I highly recommend it.
Relevant to anyone and everyone.

Diane W. - 5 years 11 months ago

A very unique perspective, which we don't usually think about. I believe there is a lot of truth in it. For all readers.

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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

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Overview

Customer Reviews

Rating Snapshot

Review Images

Must read for anyone who loves the medical profession or an aging or disabled person

Seismic insight on death and end of life decisions

I would change nothing

Fascinating and Inspiring

Relevant to anyone and everyone.