The concept of ars moriendi, or the art of dying, dates back to
the Middle Ages. In today's modern world, patients and their
doctors struggle to achieve this notion of a "good death" amidst
a culture unwilling to accept the finality of death. Dr. Oz
talks with Dr. Sherwin Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at
Yale School of Medicine and the author of How We Die:
Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, about how the dying, their
loved ones and society as a whole can begin to approach death
with more dignity and acceptance. As a patient reaches the end
of their life, Dr. Nuland says efforts to die a "good death" are
thwarted by others' attempts to conceal, sanitize and prevent
death. While physicians and the medical establishment typically
address end-of-life care with the best of intentions, their
well-meaning actions can prolong suffering and diminish the
quality of life. For example, they may promote the use of a
high-risk experimental procedure or medication which does more
harm than good. "We physicians wh