A Graceful Exit

About the Book

A GRACEFUL EXIT: LIFE AND DEATH ON YOUR OWN TERMS, is an eloquent testimonial from a world-renowned cardiologist facing his affliction with cancer.

It highlights, in a painstaking fashion and with ample case illustrations, the dismal failure of our society and the medical profession to provide quality care to citizens during the last chapter of their lives.  It provides a road map on how we, as a society, may transform the prevailing high-technology, avid death-defying culture into one that accepts the finitude of life and medicine and that attends to human dignity and fulfills the individual’s unique choices regarding end-of-life medical care.

Excerpts from the book should provide the reader with a flavor of the scope and intent of this most valuable manuscript.

“As strange as it may sound, my experience with cancer has been enlightening and enlivening.  Others may have found cancer to be an awful thing, a curse to be dispelled, a nightmare to be fought.  The occurrence of my cancer, on the other hand, has taught me who I am and who I am capable of becoming.  It brought discipline into my life.  It enabled me to look back, and it showed me the price I had to pay to rise to the top.  Throughout my professional career, there were times when I did not care who I was stepping on, if, in the process, I could reach the stars.  It did not matter if there were victims as long as I was declared victor.

Cancer has changed all this.  I rediscovered my wonderful family.  I wish we had more laughs and fewer confrontations in years past, but now I cherish every minute I spend with them and with my three grandsons, Max, Eli, and Cole.  With every passing day, I derive more joy out of life than I ever dreamed I would.  I am thankful every day for every little pleasure that life brings with it.  I am grateful for the time I spend with my wife, Laila and for every meal, every smile, every laugh, and every expression of friendship.  Most of all, I am grateful for the little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.

I do not have to fight cancer; I am grateful for it.  Yes, two major surgeries and radiation in between brought with them considerable physical pain, but that is the one price for being human, thank God.  The deeper the wound, the tougher the scar.

NATURAL DEATH VERSUS TREATMENT TO DEATH

The fact that, technically, all Americans can have access to the latest in technology regardless of class, color, or race has been hailed as the living example of substantive social justice in America.  On the other hand, when death is imminent, the way patients are treated varies enormously from patient to patient, and depends on the patient’s education, level of understanding, and beliefs.  Interestingly, some studies suggest that the better-educated patients are more likely to demand less intervention at the close of life.  The wishes of the family and the physician’s bias also influence treatment.  Even if we had all the resources to treat everybody to death, the wholesale application of high technology at the end of life would not be just.  Performing invasive procedures on someone who does not have the capacity to consent or refuse can be justified only if that intervention has a reasonable chance of benefiting the patient or restoring his or her health and independence.  Love for high technology and fear of lawsuits cannot stand as justification for the torture of hordes of decent people and the waste of society’s valuable and limited resources.  Neither we in the United States, nor anybody else in the world has unlimited resources to sustain; for any length of time, the squandering of resources at the end of life.  A noted contemporary philosopher warned, “The final crisis on this planet is the collision of technology and human values…Technology has no ethi

About the Author

Dr. Basta, a world-renowned cardiologist and cancer patient provides an eloquent review with case illustrations of how the medical profession and society have failed to ensure quality end-of-life care. He advocates an easily understandable, medical scenario-specific Advance Care Plan document and a Central Registry to ensure patients’ control over their end-of-life medical care.