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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What argument does Gawande give for allowing people to die with prescription drugs?
(a) It is merciful to end someone’s suffering.
(b) People have the right to stop treatment, so they should have the right to end their lives.
(c) No laws, even the prohibition of murder, are absolute.
(d) People know their desires better than their doctors.

2. How does Gawande characterize the phase of cultural development we are in, with regard to care for the sick and dying?
(a) More spiritualized.
(b) More institutional.
(c) More medicalized.
(d) Transitional.

3. What percent of Americans does Gawande say died in hospice in America in 2010?
(a) 64%.
(b) 32%.
(c) 45%.
(d) 24%.

4. What does Gawande say has provided him with the most meaningful experiences as a doctor?
(a) Helping patients deal with questions of philosophy and the spirit.
(b) Helping patients deal with limitations imposed by of mortality.
(c) Helping patients deal with what medicine cannot do.
(d) Helping patients deal with questions of ethics and the good life.

5. What is moksha?
(a) Release from suffering.
(b) Liberation from earthly life.
(c) Forgiveness for sins.
(d) Assurance of justice.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Gawande say doctors have to do as people get closer to death?

2. What does Gawande say the surgeon at his hospital recommended for his father’s tumor?

3. Who did Gawande’s father want to see in his final bout of wakefulness?

4. How often does Gawande say he thought about elderly patients before the issue of geriatrics became an interest for him?

5. Why does Gawande say he and his father preferred Doctor Benzel to the neurosurgeon at Gawande’s hospital?

Short Essay Questions

1. What definition of courage does Gawande arrive at, from his discussion of Plato’s Laches dialogue?

2. What are the three stages Gawande describes in medical development countries go through?

3. How does Gawande say that dealing with elderly patients changed his medical approach?

4. What does Gawande say are the advantages of the New Bridge on the Charles retirement community?

5. How does Gawande say the western medical model is spreading throughout the world?

6. What stance does Gawande take on the concept of “assisted suicide” (243)?

7. In the metaphor of death as the enemy, which general’s philosophy does Gawande say patients should want to emulate?

8. What are the instructions Gawande’s father left, for the disposal of his remains?

9. What does Daniel Kahneman’s research tell Gawande about painful experiences?

10. What does Gawande say was the mistake his father made in his medical care?

(see the answer keys)

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