PBS to Explore End-of-Life Care Discussions Tonight

PBS’ Now program, airing on most stations this evening, will focus on end-of-life care discussions at Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in Wisconsin. After the broadcast, video will be made available on the PBS website.

How did private discussions between seniors and their doctors about end-of-life choices for the very ill or dying become a flash point in the national health care debate?

This week, NOW travels to Wisconsin to sit in on some of these sessions and see how health care reform could profoundly affect the lives of American seniors.

The not-for-profit Gundersen Lutheran Hospital has two decades of experience in this area. Their "Respecting Choices" initiative has become one of the most comprehensive end-of-life planning programs in the country.

Two families grappling with the most difficult and complex life and death issues gave NOW on PBS extraordinary access to their discussions and their decisions.