Grave Concerns

Nationally known palliative care doctor, Jessica Zitter, says medical school students are taught how to keep patients alive, but no one teaches them how to let a patient die. Dr. Zitter's best selling book "Extreme Measures", was part biography and part expose into how our culture deals with death and dying. She argues that our current medical culture puts patients on what she calls the "End of Life Conveyor Belt." Grave Concerns host Cathy Wurzer sat down with Jessica Zitter to t...

It's difficult to think of our own death, much less the passing of a loved one. According to the Conversation Project, more than 90% of us think it's important to discuss end-of-life wishes, yet only a fraction of us do it. Those conversations happen even less frequently and it's often a taboo topic, especially among medical professionals and care providers for people with an intellectual and/or developmental disability. (IDD) Approximately 7 to 8.5 million people in the U.S. have...

If you have a bad accident and are in a coma, or maybe you're coming close to the end of your life, do you think your medical team would know what kind of care you'd like if you couldn't speak for yourself? There's a written form called a health care directive that outlines the kind of care you want and don't want if you're not able to make your own medical decisions. What's the philosophy behind these legal documents? In this episode, we'll talk with one of the country's foremost...