applesaucecreachur's review against another edition
4.5
I won't deny that, despite the litany of gathered stories and devoted editors and researchers that this book employed, the ultimate message still comes from the perspective of one male medical doctor. He offered allowances for capitalist structures including insurance systems in how he references the financial cost of medical care while dying. The basis of this book refers to disability as an unfortunate reality to be overcome at best, and at worst, a fate worse than death; while the message is about the end of life, I interpreted this as not a message that disability is merely another facet of life.
Still, I believe that Dr. Gawande and his team's tireless work paid off in Being Mortal. Gawande calls out modern medicine and its practitioners for morphing death into a demon to be battled til the bitter end (and oftentimes, beyond), rather than as something to be accepted for the sake of the dying and their beloveds. While he offers guiding principles, everyone's experience with and therefore their discussions about death are different, and that is the point. Patients are people and they contain multitudes. Our love for our people must keep their humanness, and not their treatment regimen, at the forefront.
Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Medical trauma and Ableism
fiadhnd's review against another edition
4.0
Spoiler
extensive medical scenes, illness, end of life care, deathModerate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Death
isabellew6's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Grief and Dementia
Minor: Suicide
brooklynchaise's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Drug use, and Vomit
haleyisamess's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Excrement
ulmaridae's review against another edition
"I am leery of sugessting the idea that endings are controllable. No one ever really has control. Physics and biology and accident ultimately have their way in our lives. But the point is that we are not helpless either. Courage is the strength to recognise both realities. We have room to act, to shape our stories. Though as time goes on, it is within narrower and narrower confines. A few conclusions become clear when we understand this: that our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities that go beyond merely being safe and living longer. That the chance to shape one's story is essential to sustaining meaning in life. That we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversation in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone's lives."
"The vital questions are the same. What is your understanding of the situation and it's potential outcomes? What are your fears, and what are your hopes? What are the tradeoffs that you are willing to make, and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?"
"The goal is not a good death. It is a good life, all the way to the end"
Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Vomit and Excrement
Minor: Pregnancy
cprince99's review against another edition
4.5
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Death, Medical content, and Chronic illness
laurenkimoto's review against another edition
4.0
I found this to be a seamless blend of Dr. Gawande’s personal and professional experiences with end of life care for the elderly and terminally ill. The kindness and compassion shown is moving and makes you really think about how you would want to spend the last months of your life and what really matters to you.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Terminal illness
hayleyvem's review
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Drug use
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Addiction, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
archer3's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide