Too busy to read?

'What would you do if it were your mother?' the son asked. I hesitated before I answered because I was not sure of the answer. It is, of course, the question that all patients should ask their doctors, but one most are reluctant to ask since the question suggests that doctors might choose differently for themselves compared to what they recommend for their patients.

errors of judgement and the propensity to make mistakes are, so to speak, built in to the human brain.

'It's been a wonderful life. We have said everything there is to say.'

'It's a quite extraordinary feeling to be surrounded by so much love,' she said two days before she died. 'I count my blessings.'

mother was lucky to believe in some kind of life beyond death but I do not have this faith. The only consolation I will have, if I do not achieve instant extinction, will be my own last judgement on my life as I look back on it. I must hope that I live my life now in such a way that, like my mother, I will be able to die without regret.

Dying is rarely easy, whatever we might wish to think. Our bodies will not let us off the hook of life without a struggle. You don't just speak a few meaningful last words to your tearful family and then breathe your last. If you don't die violently, choking or coughing, or in a coma, you must gradually be worn away, the flesh shrivelling off your bones, your skin and eyes turning deep yellow if your liver is failing, your voice weakening, until, near the end, you haven't even the strength to open your eyes, and you lie motionless on your death bed, the only movement your gasping breath.

The film about Igor and me was a great success. It has been shown all over the world and won many awards.

Life without hope is hopelessly difficult but at the end hope can so easily make fools of us all.