We offer such false hopes to people that every medical problem can be fixed even when you're starting to deal with an 80- or a 90-year-old body that is breaking down in multiple ways and doesn't have that resilience. And so it doesn't surprise me that someone who is completely unprepared for death may say, "Doc, do everything."

I don't think people ever were free of fear of death, but clinging to life and being so unprepared for it is a modern experience.

I want to break the taboo against questioning this drive for maximum longevity.

I want people to suffer less, and I think it's possible.

To do more, is not necessarily to do better.

We offer such false hopes to people that every medical problem can be fixed even when you're starting to deal with an 80- or a 90-year-old body that is breaking down in multiple ways and doesn't have that resilience. And so it doesn't surprise me that someone who is completely unprepared for death may say, "Doc, do everything."

I think it's very interesting that [doctors] privilege the self that is saying, "I don't want to die," but want to discount the self that said, "I want to allow natural death in such a situation."