Ken Murray: How Doctors Die

Ken Murray quit being a doctor ten years before he wrote the essay "How Doctors Die" for the Zocalo Public Square. Although the essay is titled "How Doctors Die", it is more about how the average patient is overtreated. If someone is terminally ill, they do anything they can to try to find a cure, even if the doctor knows the procedure is useless. However, according to Murray, doctors will never overtreat themselves. Murray wrote this essay to convince terminally ill people and families of terminally ill people to die how doctors die: surrounded by family. The main strategy that he uses to persuade is the use of examples. He uses the example if his mentor Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist that died of pancreatic cancer. As soon as Charlie got the diagnosis, he stayed at home to be with his family and ended up dying several months later. Charlie died a happy man, but Murray would not have accomplished his purpose unless he included a story with an unpleasant death. That was the purpose of including the story about one of his former patients. She was the attorney of a famous political family that had severe diabetes and poor circulation throughout her body. After Murray refused to do a surgery on her, she went to another hospital that would perform the surgery. Unfortunately the surgical wounds did not heal and she ended up dying. This is the example that made me agree with Murray. If that woman had only stayed with the doctor that knew her better, she may still be alive, or at least have been alive for a little longer. People should not try so hard to seek out a cure, especially terminally ill people. I believe that Murray accomplished his purpose because he knows that modern medicine has its limits. He made me think that when given the choice, its better to have a life of quality, not quantity.

Overtreatment

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