Zócalo Public Square

When should medicine fend off death, and when should it help patients prepare for the end? In the Zócalo/UCLA event “Does Medicine Know How to Approach Death?,” John Fairhall, the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, moderated a panel discussion about the ethical challenges that accompany advances in medical treatment that allow us extending life longer than ever before. UCLA Ethics Center co-founder Katherine Brown-Saltzman, Dr. Susan Stone of St. Joseph Health & Annadel Medical Group, UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital Palliative Care Chaplain Rev. Lori Koutouratsas, and Bill Monning, CA Senator and co-author of the End of Life Option Act tackled the hard question of who decides when and how we should die.