USC med school professor Ken Murray has an article over at Zocalo Public Square outlining the difference between how most people die and how doctors die. As he says, "It's not like the rest of us, but it should be."
Doctors are deeply familiar with how people usually die, and the incredible suffering that the medical system sometimes imposes on them. Because they've seen a lot more medically-induced suffering, and are more familiar with the limits of medicine in extending life, doctors are much more likely to die at home, with little medical intervention. That's a much better match with most people's stated preferences--many more Americans say they'd like to die at home (as opposed to in a hospital) than actually do.
Murray's closing point contradicts Dylan Thomas's famous admonition, but it gets at the core insight of his years in medicine. Maybe we can all learn from it:
"If there is a state of the art of end-of-life care, it is this: death with dignity. As for me, my physician has my choices. They were easy to make, as they are for most physicians. There will be no heroics, and I will go gentle into that good night. Like my mentor Charlie. Like my cousin Torch. Like my fellow doctors."
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