When Breath Becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi

If the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unlived life worth examining?

Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?

that hardness always seems brittle, unrealistic optimism the only alternative to crushing despair.

what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end.