Atul gawande questions in this book the prime target of medicine to keep people alive in view of the aging population who does not necessarily suffer from curable sickness but from effects of aging that are not necessarily curable he also touches on people with serious not curable diseases such as cancer in late stadium gawande is aiming to show that a change in medical thinking is required to avoid suffering during trying to cure uncureable illness and replacing it with a maximum . In being mortal bestselling author atul gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending medicine has triumphed in modern times transforming birth injury and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable but in the inevitable condition of aging and death the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit nursing homes preoccupied with safety pin patients into . Being mortal the latest by well known medical writer atul gawande explores a curious theme one that might appear to be taboo in the training years of a young practitioner but that. Atul gawandes being mortal is both ambitious and synthetic qualities that well suit his difficult subject death in western culture there are taboos against death because it fits neither into post enlightenment notions of progress and perfection nor into medical notions of control even domination of human biology a surgeon and an investigator gawande draws on his patients his family and travels to various hospitals and other caregiving places in order to confront death and see how