Taking a year to live could be an opportunity to make heartfelt changes that renew and refresh our purpose and goals—long before death comes knocking.

The secret theology of our rational, secular age is that death ends relationships and reciprocity. But consigning our dead to the gone-ness of the past has far-reaching consequences.

Some health professionals encourage hope when they speak to a terminally ill person about their prognosis and end-of-life care. But investing in perpetual hope means dying people may never learn how to die.

Few of us want to admit our age in a Botox culture where it’s a compliment to be told we look youthful. This might be a clue as to why it’s difficult to talk about ageing and advancing frailty as inescapable facts of life.

Faced with a choice between death, or chronic poor health, and the tantalising prospect of a cure, few of us can resist choosing more treatment. But the experience of many who choose new drugs and medical interventions isn’t what they imagined.

UNCERTAINTY by Dan Gaffney

Patients who receive new treatments in clinical trials do little better than those on existing therapies.

Some diseases have a better prognosis than others but when the odds of survival are slim, health professionals can feel pressured to offer further treatments despite their low chances of success.

Our desire to live longer, even at the end of life, has driven a multitude of ways of averting death. Yet people who accept their prognosis and who choose palliative care are happier and live longer than those who pursue life-extending therapies.

Many of us are living long enough to become interested in adding vitality, meaning and life to our years rather than merely adding more years to life.