was chief physician and head of the emergency ward of the Berlin Vivantes Clinic Am Urban and managing director of the Vivantes Hospice, which he co-founded, until retiring in 2014. He chairs a foundation for palliative medicine and regularly publishes articles on health policy in »DIE ZEIT« and »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«, among others. His most recent book is »Abschied vom Leben. Von der Patientenverfügung bis zur Palliativmedizin« (2017; tr: Farewell to Life).