For B.J. Miller, a triple amputee, life through his eyes was only uniquely difficult. Miller found his professional focus upon entering medical school and discovering palliative care—an approach that focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses and their families. Eventually, he would become the executive director of a pioneering hospice in San Francisco, the Zen Hospice Project, which originated at the height of the AIDS crisis. Now, the hospice is an independent nonprofit group that trains volunteers for a local public hospital as well as its own residential operation. The goal of Zen Hospice is to restore one’s end of life to a human experience rather than a medical one—or, as Miller puts it, to “de-pathologize death.” Miller sought to make the talk about death seem less scary, having known exactly how suffering can suspend you in a world of darkness. Miller, someone who imposes guilt on himself to live life to the fullest—a byproduct of his intimacy with mortality—selfishly ensured that his patients preserve their favorite part of themselves in their last moments. Shortly after an extreme personal experience with one of his patients, Miller stepped down as Zen Hospice’s executive director and now works on his own dream, something he calls the Center for Dying and Living, designing imaginative possibilities for palliative care. Read his full story for insight into how an amputee used his own experience to pioneer a new model of palliative care.
See Jon Mooallem, One Man’s Quest to Change the Way We Die, N.Y. Times Magazine, January 3, 2017.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) & Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
