A Time When Listening Is “Sacred”

By By Jane Gross in the New Old Age Blog Published: September 25, 2008

A physician's crusade for enlightened care at the end of life is rewarded. It is Dr. Diane E. Meier’s goal to make palliative care “part of the genome of American medicine,” as she put it this week when she was named one of 25 recipients of the so-called “genius awards” presented each year by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Her argument then — and even more vociferously now — is that the American health care system reimburses doctors for doing procedures, not spending hours plumbing the souls of their patients. Thus no physician has time for the discussion, reflection and explanation necessary to conclude, knowledgeably and honorably, that helping a patient die is a reasonable and ethical choice.