Wishes To Die For: Expanding Upon Doing Less in Advance Care Directives

Many believe that life is worth sustaining to uphold a person’s dignity. Others prefer peaceful transitions from life that are free of worry, indignation, and condemnation. Dying consciously and with dignity is telltale of an honorable life, yet many struggle with this concept as it relates to physician-assisted suicide. Dying with dignity is a personal perception, prospective choice, and conscious undertaking. As an emergency medicine physician, Kevin Haselhorst routinely confronts the controversies and atrocities that patients experience near the end of life. The emotional turmoil inherent to emergency departments rarely provides dignity to patients. Nonetheless, this often remains the final go-to plan for averting death and dying.In Wishes to Die For, Dr. Haselhorst melds his practice of yoga with the practice of medicine and provides a heart-centered alternative to end-of-life torment. Dignity through personal empowerment is derived from declaring and documenting heartfelt wishes with the sole purpose of lessening defense mechanisms to gain lasting fulfillment. When people align their wishes with personal belief systems rather than the healthcare establishment, a new paradigm for end-of-life care is created. Evoking compassion through mutual empowerment affords the shared understanding that dignity is a spiritual word in the context of advance care planning.