If a doctor can perform an abortion or transgender operation I don’t understand why a patient can’t request an end of life assist. I am still working, albeit part time, as a consultant geriatrician and stroke physician on the south coast of England. I read this book over the course of one day and now I am passing it on to friends to read and discuss.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. ACT Contact / FAQ About Events / Videos Merch / Subs Sign in/up 33 Meditations on Death : Notes from the Wrong End of Medicine dAVID jARRETT More by this author. Brilliant - a grimly humourous yet humane account of the realities of growing old in the modern age.Too much medicine and too little helping people and their families gain a realistic vision of old age and dying.

I am naturally a little biased but this is a lovely book which highlights the simultaneous futility and the beauty of life. But my observation is that iliving to an old age - a slow death - is as bad as the author describes. A refrain throughout the book is: "Just because a treatment can be given does not mean it should be given. We all need to have conversation about what we want in the end and keep the conversation going with your family. I have a plan in the end and won't be left suffering more needlessly because of lacking a NDR directive.This unusual and important book is a series of reflections on death in all its forms: the science of it, the medicine, the tragedy and the comedy. This is reflected less in his observations - which are more evenhanded - than in his sweeping asides and unfortunately these do intrude given the subject matter of what is otherwise a thoughtful and interesting book about dying. My cynical side thinks it’s because keeping an old patient alive generates way more money for the medical community. David Jarrett's 33 Meditations, the fruit of forty years of professional experience with people at the end of their lives, is not only timely and important, but hugely enjoyable. I am happy to talk on end of life decisions in the elderly, dementia prevention, the history of stroke disease, biological ageing or other topics covered in 33 Meditation on Death.

It is a bitter-sweet reflection of a life well lived but one that is courageous enough to face the realities of life and the human condition. I discovered this book after a guest speaker on a radio 4 programme mentioned it and thought I’d give it a go. It is striking how the candour of our public discourse fails when we get on to the subject of death, a significant and puzzling failure for it is the fate we all share. Anything we prepare for is so much easier to handle than becoming overwhelmed due to our lack of tools to sort things out clearly.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. It’s fantastic - every chapter left me reflecting on my own life, what I would like for the people I love and what I hope my children will experience. This book reinforces all the things that we suspect about ageing which none of us really wants to own. Old age and the end of life are things that we need to prepare for and discuss with our family members.

I’ve recommended this book to so many and my parents have read this as a result (and also loved it)! I am interested in how modern medicine seems to have lost its way especially with excessive investigation and treatment of the very frail and elderly close to the end of their natural lives. He marries the importance of keeping ourselves useful with the necessity not to take ourselves too seriously. It is a very thought-provoking, and often moving book, that reveals how modern medicine can sometimes prolong suffering for both the patient and the family.Jarrett explains how we can ensure that our last years are comfortable and not a burden to us, the health care system and, most importantly, our loved ones. And I loathe fish, can't eat lamb and must steer clear of certain other foods that make my skin itch.