TY - JOUR T1 - Books: <em>Being Mortal. Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End</em> JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 153 LP - 153 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X684121 VL - 66 IS - 644 AU - Lydia Yarlott Y1 - 2016/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/644/153.1.abstract N2 - Being Mortal. Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End Atul Gawande Profile Books, 2015, PB, 304pp, £7.99, 978-1846685828Just a few generations ago, our unshielded ancestors were faced with mortality on a regular basis. A proportion succumbed at birth, and whoever made it through had a good chance that childhood, motherhood, or a plethora of other ordeals would mark their early demise. The living were intimately acquainted with death and the dying process; indeed my grandmother describes viewing the body of a dead relative at the tender age of seven. … ER -