And In Stories, Endings Matter.

The Big Thing That's Happened Is, In The Time Since The Affordable Care Act Has Been Going On, Our Medical Science Has Been Advancing. We Have Now Genomic Data. We Have The Power Of Big Data About What Your Living Patterns Are, What's Happening In Your Body. Even Your Smartphone Can Collect Data About Your Walking Or Your Pulse Or Other Things That Could Be Incredibly Meaningful In Being Able To Predict Whether You Have Disease Coming In The Future And Help Avert Those Problems.

Arriving At An Acceptance Of One's Mortality Is A Process, Not An Epiphany.

Sometimes We Can Offer A Cure, Sometimes Only A Salve, Sometimes Not Even That. But Whatever We Can Offer, Our Interventions, And The Risks And Sacrifices They Entail, Are Justified Only If They Serve The Larger Aims Of A Person's Life. When We Forget That, The Suffering We Inflict Can Be Barbaric. When We Remember It The Good We Do Can Be Breathtaking.

And In Stories, Endings Matter.

This Is The Reality Of Intensive Care: At Any Point, We Are As Apt To Harm As We Are To Heal.