From NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross:

Dr. Atul Gawande began researching hospice and end-of-life care options because he says he didn’t know how to broach the subject of death with his terminally ill patients.

The surgeon and New Yorker staff writer writes about the difficulties faced by medical professionals who must decide when to stop medical interventions and focus on improving the final days of life in his article “Letting Go” in the Aug. 2 New Yorker.

Gawande tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that physicians are hesitant to tell patients that there’s nothing else they can do, even if statistics show procedures are unlikely to work.

Read or listen to the story here.

Atul Gawande is a staff member of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His books include Better and Complications.