"Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters at the End" by Atul Gawande ***

• Book Club selection, April 
• Non-Fiction 
• Originally published in 2014
• Epigraph:  
• "I see it now -- this world is swiftly passing." - the warrior Karna, in the Mahabbarata
• "They come to rest at any kerb; All streets in time are visited." - Philip Larkin, "Ambulances"
• Quotes:
• p.6..."We did little better than Ian Ilyich's primitive nineteenth century doctor--worse, actually, given the new forms of physical torture we'd inflicted on our patient."
• p.9..."This experiment of making mortality a medical experience is just decades old.  It is young.  And the evidence is it is failing."
• p.259..."Being mortal is about the struggle to cope with the constraints of our biology, with the limits set b genes and cells and flesh and bone.  .....but again and again, I hav seen the damage we in medicine do when we fail to acknowledge that such power is finite and always will be."
• p.259...".the vital questions are the same.  What are your fears and what are your hopes?  What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make?  And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?"
• p.260..."If to be human is to be limited, then the role of caring professions and institutions -- from surgeons to nursing homes -- ought to be aiding people in their struggle with those limits."
• p.262..."When to shift from pushing against limits to making the best of them is not often readily apparent.  But it is clear that there are times when the cost of pushing exceeds its value."
• Review:  This was a tasteful and thoughtful look at shifts in attitudes towards the elderly, cultural differences and generational differences in attitudes, and the role of medicine at the end of one's life.  A very nice book, especially for someone who is just beginning to think about these issues.