Very few of us are succeeding in giving our parents the ideal death.

Three-quarters of people say they want to die at home, but only a quarter of people actually do.

Almost anyone you talk to will say, 'I don't want to die plugged into machines.

We offer such false hopes to people that every medical problem can be fixed even when you're starting to deal with an 80- or a 90-year-old body that is breaking down in multiple ways and doesn't have that resilience. And so it doesn't surprise me that someone who is completely unprepared for death may say, Doc, do everything.

Attempting to grapple with improving end-of-life care is a political third rail.

Let's spend less on trying to fix the unfixable in the last five years of life and spend more supporting people so that they can stay the least disabled as they possibly can, the most independent as they possibly can, and keep them at home.