Being Mortal

Modern medicine has transformed the dangers of childbirth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the face of our inevitable aging and death, what it can do often runs counter to what it should do. Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Atul Gawande reveals the suffering this has produced. He examines the profession's limitations and failures as life draws to a close. And he shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death, but a good life - until the very end. Book jacket.

Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a staff writer for "The New Yorker". He is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and he was nominated for a 2002 National Book Award for his book "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science". His new book, "Better", will be coming out this spring.

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