My father does not want to die and I understand that. That said, I have watched as over the past three years the quality of his life has been steadily reduce to something approaching zero.

Because of our exposure to and understanding of how people die, physicians, at least in my experience, tend to deal with death differently than those outside of the profession.

National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) falls conveniently every April 16 so you can deal with the difficult matters of death and taxes all in one week. NHDD is one day when we're asked to put our own discomfort aside and think about the loved ones we leave behind.

If you feel America's attitude toward the end of life is deeply flawed, but you can't put your finger on exactly why or how to make it better, you should see this film.

It turns out that modern medicine can do a lot to preserve us and we have a lot of choices in terms of how we want to live.

In our culture, it seems more acceptable to "rage against the dying of the light" and fight to the bitter end than to take stock of what your life has been about and to be at peace with your coming death.

While everyone might sincerely believe that they all have the patient's best interest in mind, they may have diametrically opposed views about what that would look like.

Point the finger at our fix-it-fast, think-about-the-big-picture-later medical system in which doctors get rewarded to do procedures instead of communicating effectively with their patients.

Dad called yesterday to tell me he'd wheeled my mother into the cafeteria at the nursing home. He was elated, because Mom smiled and made eye contact.

NEW YORK — A significant number of the elderly – more than one in four – will eventually need someone to make end-of-life decisions ...