The author of caring for patients at the end of life dr timothy quill is probably best known for his advocacy of physician assisted suicide which he made dramatically public in a new england journal of medicine report about diane a patient with leukemia for whom he provided barbiturates that she used to end her life 1 some years later he was one of the major parties attached to the unsuccessful effort to obtain us supreme court approval of physician assisted suicide 2. Caring for patients at the end of life facing an uncertain future sean omahony mb bch palliative care service montefiore medical center and albert einstein college of medicine bronx new york. In this book the author uses his wide range of clinical experience caring for severely ill patients and their families to illustrate the challenges and potential of end of life care section one utilizes the near death experiences of two patients to explore values underlying medical humanism and then presents the case of diane to explore the fundamental clinical commitments of partnership and non abandonment. In this book the author uses his wide range of clinical experience caring for severely ill patients and their families to illustrate the challenges and potential of end of life care section one utilizes the near death experiences of two patients to explore values underlying medical humanism and then presents the case of diane to explore the fundamental clinical commitments of partnership and non abandonment. In this book the author uses his wide range of clinical experience caring for severely ill patients and their families to illustrate the challenges and potential of end of life care