How should medical professionals deliver your 'Final Notice?'

A friend of mine was crying in my arms the other day, as her mother of 63 is approaching the final throes of death by cancer.  As well as the sadness and heartache of not wanting to lose her mother, she was also crying about the awful way in which the doctors matter-of-factly relayed a shopping list of conditions and just left her to get on with it.  It promoted a discussion between us about how doctors should deal with this kind of information delivery, whether they should at least preted to care, or whether not caring was their own coping mechanism to stop them taking it all home with them.

This book by Pauline Chen sounds like an interesting read from somebody who has observed that part of the medical profession from the other side of the fence...

Some quotes about mortality

Don't fear your mortality, because it is this very mortality that gives meaning and depth and poignancy to all the days that will be granted to you.

Paul Tsongas

For me, the first fact of human existence is the human body. But if you embrace the reality of the human body, you embrace mortality, and that is a very difficult thing for anything to do because the self-conscious mind cannot imagine non-existence. It's impossible to do.

David Cronenberg

In reality, we are all travelers - even explorers of mortality.

Thomas S Monson

Parents, however old they and we may grow to be, serve among other things to shield us from a sense of our doom. As long as they are around, we can avoid the fact of our mortality; we can still be innocent children.

Jane Howard

Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.

R. D. Laing

I don't take things for granted, because everything feels more fragile. It's made me wonder about mortality and how long you've got somebody in the world. I'm more fearful than I used to be.

Robin Gibb

I believe that every human soul is teaching something to someone nearly every minute here in mortality.

M. Russell Ballard