Hospice and Palliative Care Choices

At the end of life, there are still choices to be made and medical issues to address. Do you or your loved one want to be resuscitated? Do you want a feeding tube? Do you want pain relief? What happens if you haven't shared these concerns with a family member, or put your wishes in writing somewhere? What if you are the family member responsible for the person's care, and you don't know what the dying person wants in terms of quality of life, or how long your loved one will live? In this informative program (presented earlier this month and reproduced here with the producer's permission), Politics of Culture host Sarah Spitz discusses hospice and palliative care with two experts in the field: Adam von Passow, hospice social worker and author of the free e-book, Cocoon, Caterpillar, Butterfly, and Susan Block, MD, Co-Director, Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care. 



Banner image: Nurse Rachel Haenel embraces terminally ill 83-year-old Jackie Beattie, at the Hospice of Saint John on November 5, 2009 in Lakewood, Colorado. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images