Peace be with your mother and your family.

Great article. I want to further your point on the Hippocratic oath. I don't think we look at the Hippocratic oath as often as we look at our core medical ethics principles. Doctors have to change with the times and circumstances, and the Hippocratic oath is the foundation for the principles we learn. We actively have to understand, apply, and get tested on the following medical ethics principles: Autonomy, Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, & Justice.

If you look these up, you will find "Do-no-harm" is in there too.

Coordinating care and research aligned with all of these principles is often muddied with different intricacies. Now more than ever, with COVID, things are a "tough call." Risk-reward ratios for a variety of things have hairline differences.

You are so right- there are serious trade-offs. End-of-life care can have futile efforts, some less futile than others, and I often see it. There is a lot of good too with end-of-life care; it really just depends which light you want to shine on it that day.

I really enjoyed this read. Please keep up the excellent work.