Excerpt from the paper I submitted for my rotation at the Supportive, Hospice, and Palliative Medicine of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital. I READ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' book, On Death and Dying , two summers ago. The stages of grief that Dr. Kubler-Ross proposed took on a new light as I read about patients in denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The images on my head of people suffering and dying and of the doctors telling them they don't have too long to live were distant, impersonal vignettes. At the time my hospital exposure was limited to short interview sessions with patients assigned to me, so I didn't know what the situation really was at the Philippine General Hospital. I was both inspired and challenged, of course. Taking care of the dying seemed like the sort of thing great doctors did well. I wanted to be a compassionate doctor, and, idealistic as this may sound, to