FRONTLINE EXPLORES “FACING DEATH”
November 30, 2010
PBS’s new Frontline documentary, “Facing Death: How Far Would You Go to Sustain the Life of Someone You Love, or Your Own?” explores the choices physicians and terminal patients make between more, often painful, treatment, and less, which means a quicker death. The program, which originally aired on November 23, garnered wide media interest.
The New York Times article says, “What makes the film difficult to watch is that the dying people featured are typically middle-aged or young, with every incentive to want to keep going and experimenting.” One physician notes, “Nobody wants to die, and at the same time nobody wants to die badly.” Mount Sinai’s Dr. David Nierman says, “The best thing clearly is to improve quickly and to leave. Although terrible, the second best thing is to die but to die quickly. But the worst thing is to remain in this state of suspended animation, because that can go on for months to years. And what’s so sad about it is that the better we get at practicing critical care, the more of these patients we are creating.”
The PBS link below has the full program in five video chapters, as well as interviews with the physicians in the film, guides to making decisions about various end-of-life issues, facts and figures about where and how we die and the costs of end-of-life care, related readings, and a list of resources for viewers. (The New York Times, 11/22, tv.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/arts/television/23death.html; PBS Website, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-death/; The Huffington Post, 11/23, www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-coombs-lee/facing-death-frontline-sh_b_787685.html)
Posted in Hospice News
