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We have virtually all been there, are there now or will be there someday: A loved one is critically ill, and his or her physician is talking to us about the patient's prognosis. She wants to know how we would like to proceed. She's asking what we think our loved one, hovering in a twilight world, would want. She keeps on talking, though her voice is coming through distant and garbled. The doctor's words are scaring us. For a majority of people gathered at the bedside of a critically ill patient, new research finds that confusion and miscommunication rein, jostling for space alongside hope and fear. (Healy, 5/17)

Discussions around end-of-life care are difficult, wrought with emotion and uncertainty. Ideally, decisions should be made in conjunction with patients, but when they are too ill to speak for themselves, a family member typically steps in as a surrogate. (Welch, 5/17)

An advocate of medical-aid-in-dying legislation appeared at a Cleveland Clinic conference Tuesday, calling for expanded options in treating terminally ill patients at the end of their lives. Dan Diaz spoke about the death of his wife Brittany Maynard, a California woman whose struggle to avoid suffering from terminal brain cancer spurred a national debate about the use of medication to hasten death. "Brittany knew what was coming for her, and that included pain that could not be alleviated with morphine," Diaz said during the Clinic's annual Patient Experience summit at the Cleveland Convention Center. (Ross, 5/18)