The more complex and emotional the issue the more this method breaks down. Gawked explains that this works best for for simple issues with clear choices and straightforward trade-offs. The doctor informs the patient of the facts and figures needed to figure out the best option and then lets the patient make the decision. The second type, informative, is the opposite of the paternalistic relationship. We would like to think that we are past this but in reality it is more common than we care to admit. The all knowing God-like figure that tells the patients what they should do and does not discuss options that the doctor does not think are optimal. The first is the doctor we read about from the 50's. Gawande explains the bedside manner of both doctors by describing a paper by the medical ethicists Linda and Ezekiel Emmanuel that described the three type of relationships doctors could have with patients: The Gawande's then consulted a pair of neurosurgeons, one in Boston and one at the Cleveland Clinic. Atmaram Gawande, went for an MRI to diagnose a slowly progressive pain in his neck associated with numbness in his left hand. In chapter seven, however, Gawande changes from a researcher to an active participant as his dad suffers a devastating illness and he needs to put his new found knowledge of hospice, assisted living, palliative care and end-of-life decisions to use.

Gawande is a recuring character in the book and the previous chapters we are taken on his journey from a doctor with conventional western medicine understanding about dying o a much deeper and richer understanding. Gawande uses it to dramatic effect in Being Mortal. While it didn't work for the Immortal Life, Dr. I finished the book with the belief that this point-of-view writing was a poor technique for non-fiction. Skloot's point of view came across as having low stakes and was generally uninteresting. The story was fascinating but the book fell flat because of the way that the author, Rebecca Skloot, inserted herself into the story. I thought the story of the HeLa cells and the story of Ms Lacks and her family was interesting and introduced me to a history of medicine that had previously been invisible. I did not like the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande