End of Life Care in Boston

WBUR is airing a special series this week, looking at the American medical establishment's evolving approach to care for the dying.

Quality of Death: End of Life Care in America is being reported by WBUR special correspondent Rachel Gotbaum, who, in the process of researching her documentary, came up with one finding that really interested us...

Boston, with its many renowned teaching and research hospitals, has a particular reputation in the medical community for excessive end of life care that often deprives patients of a peaceful, dignified death.

That got us thinking: with Boston's proximity to so many of the country's top medical institutions, do we have too much of a good thing here? Groundbreaking research, a legion of elite medical students, a glut of specialists; does it all add up to too much medicine at the end of life?