Less than half of doctors would talk about death only if the patient requests to talk about it. Only 43 percent of oncologists would give a prognostic estimate of how much time a patient has left.

Internist Toni Brayer examines why. She says that American society is uncomfortable with death. Given that backdrop, “we offer unrealistic expectations of survival in patients with advanced terminal cancer and patients with end stage cardiac or pulmonary disease.”

End of life care consumes a disproportionate amount of health care dollars, because both doctors and patients fail to compassionately acknowledge mortality. Dr. Brayer further adds that “doctors are stuck between a rock and a hard place because patients don’t want to be ‘quitters’ and they don’t want a physician who will give up.”

I’ve written previously that more care is not necessarily better. No where is that more relevant than in end of life situations.