article_snippet.sent: Swangard was diagnosed in 2013 with a rare form of metastatic cancer.
article_snippet.sent: The operation was successful but Swangard, 48, knows there's a strong chance the disease will return.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard is among those who believe that taking care of patients means letting patients choose how patients lives should end.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard completed that medical residency in San Francisco in the middle of the AIDS crisis; young men were dying all around that.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard's own illness was discovered in early 2013 during a long overdue check-up.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard's own illness hadn't been worried about Swangard's own illness health -- Swangard's own illness was obsessed with fitness, swimming regularly and seeing a trainer twice a week.
article_snippet.sent: But when Swangard's own illness pressed on Swangard's stomach, Swangard's own illness felt a mango-sized mass.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard's own illness had a visceral feeling, Swangard's own illness said, "something bad was happening.
article_snippet.sent: But Swangard was tormented by questions:
article_snippet.sent: Since a surgeon diagnosis, Swangard said Swangard has had a greater understanding of Swangard patients' struggles.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard didn't go into medicine to help dying people linger and wants to help change that approach — for Swangard patients and for Swangard.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard doesn't want to be in a drug-induced haze, nor consumed by worry about what's next.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard cut Swangard work hours, swims as often as Swangard can and meditates regularly.
article_snippet.sent: Swangard is in remission but Swangard knows that what happens with the cancer is largely outside Swangard control.
article_snippet.sent: An MRI last year showed a small lesion in Swangard liver, which doctors are watching closely.
article_snippet.sent: It's this big unknown," Swangard said.
article_snippet.sent: Dr. Robert Liner, a fellow plaintiff who only recently met Swangard, lives with the same uncertainty.
article_snippet.sent: On Swangard 69th birthday in May 2013, the retired obstetrician had a bad cough.
highlights_snippet.sent: Dan Swangard, a physician, wants to be able to control when and how his life ends .
  