The ten-part podcast “On life and death” highlights what precedes the decision to withdraw ICU treatment for a critically ill patient and the dilemmas this poses for families and doctors. It can happen to any of us. From one day to the next. Suddenly someone you love is in intensive care: your partner, one of your parents, a close friend or – completely unimaginable – your child. Fortunately, in most cases it ends well. But unfortunately that's not always the case. Sometimes so many complications arise that the treatment limits come into view and the patient will die in the short term. In most cases, he is not aware of this, but those close to his bedside are all the more so. In this unreal situation they are confronted with all kinds of questions. What can I still do for my partner, my parent, my child? Is he really not in pain? Has everything been tried? How disabled will he remain if he survives this period? What would he have wanted? And do the doctors decide how to proceed or do I have a say in that?

The ten-part podcast “On life and death” deals with these questions. In it we hear how doctors and families discuss these questions and what answers they arrive at together. In the odd episodes we follow the fate of five families whose loved one has been admitted to Intensive Care. In the period that follows, doubts grow as to whether continued treatment is still useful and the moment arrives when a decision is unavoidable. These fictional stories are based on real dilemmas faced by families and caregivers in Dutch ICUs. In the even-numbered episodes, Mirjam de Vos, a researcher from the Amsterdam UMC, talks about these dilemmas with five doctors who have been working in an ICU for many years. They talk about how they talk to families about major treatment decisions and what helps and what doesn't. They also talk candidly about what these profound conversations do to themselves.