There is an ongoing debate among the palliative care community about the value of advance care planning and whether current evidence suggests that advance care planning is inherently ineffective. I’m not writing this essay to take a side in this debate—I believe both sides have merit. Rather, I write to tell 3 personal stories of the role advance care planning has played for my family and in my own life. My entire career has focused on developing and evaluating ways to improve communication with patients and families about serious illness care. These 3 stories are informed by that experience and yet are told not from the perspective of a physician and researcher, but from the perspective of a son-in-law, son, and patient.
