In hospitals and emergency rooms across the country, not everyone has a say in how they want to live or die. The wishes of people suffering from mental illness are often disregarded by doctors, because these patients aren’t considered fully competent to make such decisions.
Death is rarely included as an option in a society obsessed with high-tech cures and the ability to prolong life. There are calls for the medical culture to give patients more power over their own lives and deaths.
Guests:
David Abel, reporter for The Boston Globe
Betty Dew, legal medical guardian and court investigator
Dr. Michael Grodin, Director of Bioethics at Boston Medical Center and Boston City Hospital