A provocative analysis of how our attitudes toward our own
mortality underlie society's health-care policies, especially
regarding care of the dying and termination of medical treatment,
as well as laws on living wills, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.
These issues have long concerned medical ethicist Callahan (What
Kind of Life, 1990, etc.), but, here, his focus shifts from legal
and policy questions to the relationship of death to the self, as
well as to nature, society, and modern medicine. The author
examines some of our present "illusions" - that death can be
eliminated by eradicating lethal diseases; that we can manage both
our selves and technology well enough to select the moment when
medical treatment should be halted; that euthanasia or assisted
suicide is an acceptable way to achieve a peaceful death. He
targets what he terms the "mistaken belief" that control over one's
life is a necessary condition of self-worth, as well as the notion
that death is a great evil. For Callahan, death is an unavoidable
part of life, acceptable when neither biologically nor morally
wrong. His concluding chapter deals with the pursuit of a peaceful
death, which he defines at some length in specific personal,
medical, and social terms. The goal of a peaceful death, he says,
should be an integral part of medicine - but he cautions that this
isn't likely to happen outside of a supportive cultural and
economic context. Callahan believes that public ambivalence and
confusion about the proper stance toward death shape medicine's
viewpoint and, in turn, are shaped by it. As he sees it, the task
is to create a new cultural understanding of death that will help
define our social policies. Well-considered and convincing
arguments designed to stimulate private thought and public
discussion; of special interest to medical ethicists and
health-care policy-makers. (Kirkus Reviews)
Drawing on his own experience, and on literature, philosophy, and
medicine, Daniel Callahan offers great insight into how to deal
with the rewards of modern medicine without upsetting our
perception of death. He examines how we view death and the care of
the critically ill or dying, and he suggests ways of understanding
death that can lead to a peaceful acceptance. Callahan's thoughtful
perspective notably enhances the legal and moral discussions about
end-of-life issues. This title is originally published in 1993 by
Simon and Schuster.
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