As the late author Christopher Hitchens battled esophageal cancer, the brutal side effects of chemotherapy seemed like, as Dr. Peter Attia wrote, “fair trade for a few more years of useful life.”
But as Hitchens neared the end, he wrote: "I lay for days on end, trying in vain to postpone the moment when I would have to swallow. Every time I did swallow, a hellish tide of pain would flow up my throat, culminating in what felt like a mule kick in the small of my back. … And then I had an unprompted rogue thought: If I had been told about all this in advance, would I have opted for the treatment?"