Navigating the Ethics of End-of-Life Care Decisions

End-of-life care: Who decides?

That's the title of my panel presentation on Wednesday, November 12, 2025.

My father was old and sick, and I had to decide how he was going to die. My choices were:

1. Go against my gut and schedule two surgeries his doctor recommended. The problem was that, as far as I could see, he wouldn't make it through the first surgery and he would suffer the kind of death he had long dreaded.

OR

2. Go against the medical industrial complex and reject the recommended surgeries. Did I even have the guts to do that? My fear was a sharp rebuke from his doctor, who told me Dad would "die a gruesome death" without the surgeries. I also worried about legal reprisals. I stood to gain financially from my father's death; would the doctor report me and would I be prosecuted?

I couldn't think clearly because I was in crisis mode, and the level of responsibility was almost unbearable. I kept thinking, how did I get here and how do I get out of here??

You can hear me talk about my dilemma (otherwise known as the worst four days of my life) and end-of-life care decisions in a fabulous virtual panel discussion on The Ethics of End of Life Care at Boston University's School of Medicine on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 6 p.m. ET. You can register here or wait for the recording, which I'll link to here once it's available.

Principles of end-of-life care and actions to support them

The ethical principles of end-of-life care are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. I would add fidelity, or full disclosure about all aspects of what to expect, to that list. I'll talk about these principles and actions health care systems can take to support them.

Action items for health systems for better managing end-of-life care

You can also hear me talk about what health systems can do to help the public and health care providers better manage the end-of-life care we're all so uncomfortable even discussing. The second image in this post outlines action items for hospitals and for educating the public.

In my experience, when it comes to end-of-life care, there are two choices: plan and prepare or react and regret. My goal is to help people prevent regret.

- Beth