Modern changes in the way we understand medicine and interact with the health care system have changed the way we understand death. Once a familiar, peaceful, and gentle—if sorrowful—transition, death has come to be something from which we shield our eyes, as we prefer to fight desperately against it rather than accept its inevitability. Dr. Kathryn Mannix has studied and practiced palliative care for thirty years. In With the End in Mind , she shares beautifully crafted stories from a lifetime of caring for the dying.