33 Meditations on Death: Notes from the Wrong End of Medicine

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David Jarrett's 33 Meditations, the fruit of forty years of professional experience with people at the end of their lives, is not only timely and important, but hugely enjoyable. Old age and the end of life are things that we need to prepare for and discuss with our family members. Anything we prepare for is so much easier to handle than becoming overwhelmed due to our lack of tools to sort things out clearly. Like many lapsed Catholics the author is sometimes guilty of imagining that a Roman Catholic understanding of how to respond to death and what religion means is the only valid (but wrong) way of being religious. Jarrett explains how we can ensure that our last years are comfortable and not a burden to us, the health care system and, most importantly, our loved ones.

How else will my caregivers (when I'm old and gaga) know I want a glass of Aussie Chardonnay at 7pm every evening.If a doctor can perform an abortion or transgender operation I don’t understand why a patient can’t request an end of life assist. Too much medicine and too little helping people and their families gain a realistic vision of old age and dying. And I loathe fish, can't eat lamb and must steer clear of certain other foods that make my skin itch. It is a very thought-provoking, and often moving book, that reveals how modern medicine can sometimes prolong suffering for both the patient and the family.

A refrain throughout the book is: "Just because a treatment can be given does not mean it should be given. I am happy to talk on end of life decisions in the elderly, dementia prevention, the history of stroke disease, biological ageing or other topics covered in 33 Meditation on Death. I am still working, albeit part time, as a consultant geriatrician and stroke physician on the south coast of England.This wonderfully enlightening book by a doctor who cares for the dying is a plea for all of us to consider now what a good death should look like and what we’d want for ourselves. I work in the NHS myself in psychology and really liked the author’s musings on how much society might over-medicalise or over-treat. Brilliant - a grimly humourous yet humane account of the realities of growing old in the modern age. It’s fantastic - every chapter left me reflecting on my own life, what I would like for the people I love and what I hope my children will experience. I am interested in how modern medicine seems to have lost its way especially with excessive investigation and treatment of the very frail and elderly close to the end of their natural lives.