Monday, June 6th, 2016, 7 pm
Gibson's Book Club reads Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. 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.
Our book club is open to all. We've chosen an eclectic, ambitious list of books for the coming year: join us for every meeting, or deal yourself in as the spirit moves you.
This title will be discounted 25% from the publisher's price for the following year, whether you join us for meetings or not.
All meetings unless otherwise noted are on the first Monday of the month, and begin at 7:00, to give you time to have dinner and relax a bit first. Parking is free in the Capitol Commons garage and on the street, after 5 p.m...