David Goldhill on Dying and End-of-Life Care

The near-universality of a slow death is a triumph of modern medicine. Our success in managing what had been rapidly fatal diseases has essentially created a new phase of life—a period of physical and mental decline that can last for many years. But as David Goldhill observes in Reason's March 2015 issue, rather than take advantage of the possibilities of these bonus years, we've allowed them to be defined by the ultimately futile struggle merely to survive. We've turned over the last years of our lives to the medical profession.