“Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end.” 

Medicine in modern times has fulfilled its mission of saving lives and ensuring the healthiness of people. However, in the inevitable condition of aging and death, old age has been medicalized to such an extent that it is no longer accepted that life isn’t curable.  

Atul Gawande writes this book based on his own experience as a practicing surgeon to raise an unanswered question: Doctors, hospitals and nursing homes are extending the elderly’s life or turning out to extend suffering? In “Being Mortal”, Gawande is not against the idea of making drugs available to terminally ill people who are suffering, but his main concern is that reliance on assisted death is yet another distraction from what makes the end of life meaningful, not only for the dying, but also for those around them. What is clear is that many late medical interventions with the multitrillion dollars spent are not only unhelpful but actually counterproductive. 

In the book, Gawande offers instances of freer, more socially fulfilling models for supporting the infirm and dependent elderly. Moreover, he explores various types of hospice care to show that a person’s final weeks or months can be rich and dignified.