End-of-Life Medical Decisions

In 2014, I started studying an apparent paradox in American healthcare: Most Americans say they prefer to die at home, and people whose family members have used hospice have mostly favorable reports of that experience. From a policy perspective, the use of hospice should help mitigate costly end-of-life care. Yet, only about 30% of us actually die at home. So why don’t more people chose hospice? As a sociologist, I explore the social context of hospice decisions, including how health systems shape individual choices—and why framing things as a simple “patient choice” might be part of the problem.

Below are some of my favorite articles out of this work. (If you can’t access papers, please email me directly.)