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How Doctors Die: Extremely interesting perspective at an uncomfortable subject — how much effort to save ourselves from death is worthwhile?

Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds—from 5 percent to 15 percent—albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him.

Here’s the key:

Of course, doctors don’t want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits [...] Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call “futile care” being performed on people.