APRIL 2, 2012. The essay “How Doctors Die,” by Dr. Ken Murray, first published in Zócalo Public Square, has been selected for the collection The Best American Essays 2012. The article, which describes how doctors forego much of the end-of-life treatment they offer to others, ran as part of Zócalo’s “Remedies” series, made possible by the California HealthCare Foundation.

Dr. Murray, a family doctor who lives in Southern California, is a regular contributor to Zócalo. He wrote the article prompted by years of seeing patients and acquaintances die in ways they didn’t want or choose. Murray feels that they should have the choice, like doctors, to “go gently.” The essay has received attention around the world, with translations into multiple languages, and has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, as well as newspapers and magazines abroad.

The Best American Essays, launched in 1986, is an annual anthology of magazine articles published in the United States. It is published by Houghton Mifflin and edited by Robert Atwan, with 2012 guest editor David Brooks.

Full link to article here.

About Zócalo Public Square

Zócalo Public Square, a project of the Center for Social Cohesion, is a living magazine, an innovative blend of on-the-ground events and online journalism, that connects people to ideas and to each other in an open, accessible, non-partisan, and broad-minded spirit. Through our web publication, lectures, panels, screenings, and conferences, Zócalo explores ideas that enhance our understanding of citizenship and community-the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion.

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