Credit: Cristina Taccone

Katy Butler

Thursday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.

Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death

Award-winning journalist Katy Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the tech­nological imperatives of modern medicine. Her provocative thesis is that advanced medicine, in its single-minded pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. Butler lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that modern dying has become and chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine—a growing movement that promotes care over cure.

"Intimate and wise, heartbreakingly compassionate, and critically helpful, this is a truly important work that I hope will be widely read. We have lost our way and Katy Butler's impeccably researched and powerful tale will help eliminate much suffering on the passage to the mystery of death." -Dr. Jack Kornfield

Knocking on Heaven’s Door is based on a groundbreaking New York Times Magazine article (“What Broke My Father’s Heart”) that was named a “notable narrative” by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard and won top prizes from the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Family Caregivers’ Association, and the National Association of Science Writers. Edwidge Danticat chose it for Best American Essays 2011 and Floyd and Rebecca Skloot for Best American Science Writing 2011.

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