Ira Byock defined death then the way he believes many still define it now - as a failure of our bodies, and of medicine. Before that, hard as it is to remember now, medicine was dedicated rather single-mindedly to curing - to fixing what was wrong.

in the 1970s and ’80s - dedicated to addressing pain and other suffering, with the end of life approaching. He became part of the hospice movement as it entered the U.S. He is a professor of medicine at Dartmouth and the former director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. TIPPETT: “Contemplating Mortality.” I’m Krista Tippett and this is On Being. That in addition to, concurrent with the unwanted difficult physical and emotional social strains that illness and dying impose, there is also experiences, interactions, opportunities that are of profound value for individuals and all who love them. But we shouldn’t assume that it’s only about suffering and its avoidance or its suppression. IRA BYOCK: I don’t want to romanticize it. These are often transformative experiences, as dense with repair and celebration as with grief and loss.ĭR. So many of us these days catch glimpses of this as we move toward death with loved ones in hospice, or with friends or even strangers through the CaringBridge website. He says we lose sight of “the remarkable value” of the time of life we call dying if we forget that it is always a personal and human event, and not just a medical one. Ira Byock is a leading figure in palliative care and hospice in the U.S. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: What if we understand death as a developmental stage - like adolescence, or midlife? Dr.

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