Podcast Episode: Taking a Different Approach to Dying

Episode from In the Moment Podcast. To listen, click here.

From In the Moment:

Humans navigate death in very different ways. Dying is a natural and inevitable part of the cycle of life; however, the process looks very different depending on geographic location, cultural traditions, access to and type of medical care, and myriad other factors. Dr. Nicole Piemonte argues that Western Medicine often views death as a medical failure or something biologically wrong that needs fixing. Is doing everything possible to “fix” death the correct approach, or might we start to look at death differently?

Dr. Piemonte addresses this and other questions in her new book, Death and Dying — part of The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. Somewhere along the way, has dying become a business? Does a cascade of medical interventions temporarily prevent death but ultimately prolong suffering? In the 117th Episode of Town Hall’s In the Moment Podcast, Dr. Piemonte joins senior correspondent Steve Scher to discuss how we might shift from an attitude focused on biological dysfunction to one that embraces personal values and respects the emotional realities of death.