Being Mortal Book Summary - Being Mortal Book explained in key points

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Being Mortal summary

Name: Being Mortal
Rating: 4.5 (166 reviews)
Author: Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande

Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End

4.5 (166 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is a thought-provoking exploration of aging and end-of-life care. The book confronts the medicalization of aging and death, while advocating for a more humane and holistic approach to this stage of life.

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Aging Inspiration

Table of Contents

Being Mortal
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Discover why every one of us will have to get used to the idea of dying.

According to the axiom, death and taxes are the only two inevitabilities in life. And although we all get used to paying Uncle Sam a portion of our income, very few of us come to terms with the fact that we are, one day, going to die. This needs to be addressed.

Advances in medicine continue to prolong our lives, and the longer our lifespans, the longer our decline toward death. Dying, once relatively rapid, may become a torturously lengthy process. Both as individuals and as a society, we will need to face this reality and learn how to make dying more than something to be dreaded and endured.

In these blinks you’ll discover

why dignity is important, right up until the end;
why care homes need to be more humane; and
why considering death now will make dying easier.

Old age and disease result in a loss of independence, causing reliance on family, medicine and social programs.

It’s unpleasant to think about death and disease. Yet every one of us will eventually be confronted with them, both directly, as our own body ages, and indirectly, as our loved ones age and pass on. Precisely because it’s inevitable, it is tremendously important to talk about death and dying.

As we age, our organs slowly lose their strength and efficiency. Our bones, muscles and teeth, for example, lose mass, while our blood vessels and joints harden. As our bodies undergo this process, the heart has to pump harder to maintain blood flow, causing many elderly people to suffer from high blood pressure.

Our brains aren’t spared deterioration, either; the brain shrinks in size, often resulting in dementia.

As our bodily systems gradually fail us, we become more prone to injury and disease, and less capable of caring for ourselves.

Muscle weakness, for instance, causes many elderly people to suffer dangerous falls. In the US alone, some 350,000 people per year break a hip due to muscle deterioration.

The process of aging makes it harder to maintain an independent lifestyle. Even daily activities – from grocery shopping to using the toilet – become increasingly difficult.

Eventually, we’ll need permanent help from family or medical professionals, which often means spending our remaining years in a hospital or nursing home.

The increased vulnerability that comes with old age is a hard fact, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept. It’s important, then, that we consider the realities of aging and death, and find ways to make the experience less painful.

Increasingly, aging and dying take place in hospitals and other medical institutions.

Modern medicine allows us to now live longer than ever before. In past centuries, diseases contracted after the age of 50 usually resulted in a quick death. Today, however, doctors can help us maintain our health much longer, slowing the body’s deterioration and postponing death.

As a result of these medical breakthroughs, the percentage of Americans over the age of 65 has risen from 2 to 14 percent in the last 200 years. In Germany, Italy and Japan the elderly now constitute 20 percent of the population. While it might seem strange, these demographic changes have meant changes in how we die.

Even when we’re old and sick, we want to maintain at least some control over our lives.

When you’re young, you have all the freedom you could ask for. You can live by yourself and play by your own rules, without anyone meddling in your affairs.

While independence is among our fundamental values, the truth is that a point will come in life when complete independence is no longer tenable. When you grow old or sick, you must accept the new limitations imposed by your body and mind. But that doesn’t mean you want to give up the values that have guided your entire life.

Medical institutions and doctors fail to meet the needs of the elderly and dying and often rob them of their independence.

When most people think of old age homes, they imagine drab rooms full of dullness and depression – and this stereotype isn’t too far from the mark. Unfortunately, boredom and loneliness are the norm for the elderly.

Nursing homes and intensive care units often operate on regimented routines that infringe on people’s autonomy. People who had previously lived their lives in relative freedom suddenly find themselves bound to a schedule and forced to give up all personal privacy.

We often seek the treatment that helps us live longest, even when it makes the remainder of our life miserable.

Twenty-five percent of the US’s healthcare costs is for treatment of people who are in the final year of their life, even though they make up only five percent of all patients. While some of these treatments are important and beneficial, many are hopeless attempts to prolong a fading life. Drawing out death often does more harm than good.

In choosing a treatment, both patients and doctors often succumb to hopeful delusions. Even when all the odds are against them, the patient and their family tend to anxiously await a miracle cure that almost certainly won’t come.

Society must manage aging and death so we keep both our independence and our sense of meaning.

Clearly, modern society’s version of medical care fails to meet the needs and desires of those facing death. To age well and to die well, we need to promote services that respect people’s autonomy while providing compassionate help and guidance when it is needed.

One such model that does this is assisted living, which aims to move away from the rigorous control of nursing homes while essentially providing the same services.

Doctors need to provide better guidance for people facing death.

The relationship between doctor and patient is often tricky, and this is especially true when the patient is terminally ill. Doctors are no less human than their patients, and are constantly torn between professional sobriety and natural compassion.

But in order to help sick people make the most of their lives, doctors can’t be completely one way or the other.

Families need to learn to talk about age, illness and death in realistic terms – before it’s too late.

We often don’t want to talk or think about old age and mortality – neither our own or that of our loved ones. Often, we start thinking about death and illness when it’s already too late, thus forcing ourselves to make hasty decisions and depriving ourselves of a dignified good-bye.

It’s important that you discuss the questions that come with age and disease openly with family and our friends, for example, by considering what “trade-offs” you’re willing to make on your sick- or deathbed. You can make this vivid by considering the following questions: What will be most important in your final hours? What makes life worth living?

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What is Being Mortal about?

Being Mortal (2014) helps the reader navigate and understand one of life’s most sobering inevitabilities: death. In this book, you will learn about the successes and failures of modern society’s approach to death and dying. You’ll also learn how to confront death and, by doing so, how to make the most out of life.

Being Mortal Review

Being Mortal (2014) by Atul Gawande examines the challenges of aging and end-of-life care in modern society. Here's why this book is essential reading:

It provides a thought-provoking exploration of medical ethics, patient autonomy, and quality of life.
The book shares powerful stories of individuals and families navigating difficult decisions.
It offers practical insights for improving care and communication during life's final stages.

Gain a deeper understanding of mortality and compassionate care with Being Mortal.

Best quote from Being Mortal

People cant stop the aging of their bodies and minds, but there are ways to make it more manageable.

—Atul Gawande

Who should read Being Mortal?

Anyone who has wondered how to improve the lives of the elderly and terminally ill
Anyone with elderly or terminally ill loved ones
Anyone who wants to improve their life by improving their death

About the Author

Atul Gawande is a doctor, author, researcher and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has written two other books, Complications (2007) and The Checklist Manifesto (2011).

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