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It's Time to Talk Frankly About Death.

Medical ethicist Daniel Callahan. His new book is "The Troubled Dream of Life: Living with Mortality." (Simon & Schuster). In it he looks at how our society views death: If death is a "part of life," why do we have such trouble accepting it? And how do our attitudes about death affect medical and social policy? Callahan calls for a new understanding of death, so that it could be, "tolerable and familiar, affirmative of the bonds of community and social solidarity, expected with certainty and accepted without crippling fear." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

22:59
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Other segments from the episode on August 24, 1993

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, August 24, 1993: Interview with Daniel Callahan; Interview with Jerry Adler; Commentary on motherhood.
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15:56

Actor Jerry Adler.

Actor Jerry Adler. He's a former Broadway producer, director and stage manager who took up acting at the age of 62. He worked on over 53 Broadway shows before moving to L.A. where he staged managed a soap opera. On a hunch, a friend, who was casting a film, brought Adler in to read. That resulted in his first appearance as an actor in the film noir thriller, "The Public Eye." Since then, Adler has acted in a number of television shows. He's now starring in the new Woody Allen film, "Manhattan Murder Mystery." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

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22:45

The Ethics and Economics of Medicine.

Author Daniel Callahan. He is an expert on medical ethics whose latest book is "What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress." The book questions the assumption that everyone should receive the most life sustaining medical care available. According to Callahan, we need to change our thinking about health and illness and focus on the quality of life rather than the extension of life. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

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Medicine's Rising Costs Put Hippocratic Oath At Risk

Are doctors rationing health care? Health policy analyst Gregg Bloche says doctors routinely compromise the principles of the Hippocratic Oath when they decided which expensive tests and treatments they can and can't provide, in order to please lawmakers, lawyers and insurance companies.

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