Facing Death | Ashely Alker | TEDxUCSD

In this TEDx talk, Dr. Alker shares her experiences in the intensive care unit, and challenges the taboo around the topic of death.


Ashley Alker is a resident physician in Emergency Medicine at UC San Diego. After attending UCSB, she became interested in healthcare as a venue for the advancement of international relations. She attended George Washington Medical School, specializing in global health. From there, she worked in Tanzania, France, Spain, Morocco, and Cyprus, adopting the best components of each medical system into her own ideals. Through these cultures, she found one of the most interesting concepts was both pervasive and elusive: death. No community was particularly thrilled on the topic, but each community had a different threshold for discussing death. She learned that through the choices we make in life may determine how we die, and we have the power to make our dying wishes clear.


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx