|
To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life | 
| Authors: Sidney Wanzer, Joseph Glenmullen
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $6.30
You Save: $17.70 (74%)
New (47) Used (18) from $0.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 465764
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 232
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0738210838
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.7
EAN: 9780738210834
ASIN: 0738210838
Publication Date: March 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: THIS ITEM IS UNUSED AND IN GOOD CONDITION. IT MAY HAVE SLIGHT SHELFWEAR BUT OTHERWISE IT IS FINE.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The knowledge provided in this book is both comforting and powerful. Patients who know their right to refuse treatment and the legal ways to bring about death if pain or distress cannot be alleviated will be spared the frightening helplessness that can rob their last days of meaning and connection. Drs. Wanzer and Glenmullen do not shy from controversy. They make clear what patients should expect of their doctors, including the right to enough pain control even it shortens life. They also explain the legal ways hasten death that are possible for anyone, and clarify the controversies now surrounding those that require a doctor’s help. Compassion and reassurance blend with direct, honest fact in this book that every one of us should have before it is needed for ourselves or our families.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 To Die Well: excellent book - but is it practical? October 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a card-carrying member of two organizations advocating euthanasia, I am gratified that two MDs took the trouble to write a comprehensive book about the subject. They discuss the moral, legal, and the how-to of this controversial subject. Especially significant are the chapters guiding readers about their right to refuse food and hydration, and using helium to bring about their self-deliverance.
Dr. Wanzer is a compassionate physician. He describes his hour-long discussions with patients and their caregivers in their homes and at hospitals. He often refers to the rights of dying patients to dismiss their non-cooperating physicians even when they are already in a hospital, and choosing a more empathetic doctor. The sad reality is that doctors stopped making house call quite a while ago, and found a way around treating their patients in hospitals. They are adamant about seeing patients in their offices for only 15 minutes, which allows precious little time to discuss the various options and methods to exit this world. Medicare (and the majority of dying patients carry this insurance) does not even compensate physicians for discussing questions about imminent death.
On page 145 the authors describe how to "avoid unwanted resuscitative measures." Absent clear instructions prepared beforehand, they advocate that the family avoid calling 911. But if that has been done, they suggest calling the patient's physician to deal with the responding emergency team. In over four decades of living in San Francisco, I have never had physicians answer my call personally. When I was lucky, they returned my call after office hours. Having called 911 makes it is essential for the family to speak to the doctor the moment they are connected to the office. Every second counts to prevent the responding team from commencing resuscitating the patient. That simply won't happen.
Likewise, the suggestion that patients who refuse food and water instruct the hospital staff not to check their vital signs or administer antibiotics when the need arises is extremely unlikely to be followed.
In summary, this pioneering work needs a companion book on how to deal with the present medical realities.
To Die Well October 6, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the book for anyone that desires to have control of their lives and bodies during their last days.
Useful information to help you live, and die, well May 11, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book should be on the shelf of everyone who thinks he or she might indeed die some day, and on the shelves of caregivers and hospice volunteers and end-of-life professionals everywhere as well. It is honest, easily readable and crammed with useful information every thinking person should have. The authors identify the times - introducing the helpful concept of "turning points" - which most of us will encounter as our health declines, and outline how we can take charge of our lives by recognizing these times. The first is when "there is no reasonable expectation of a cure or of restoring health;" the second is when the prospect of hastening death may appropriately be considered. While the authors are physicians, and some of the writing seems aimed toward physician-readers, the book is for everyone and accessible for the lay reader. Its point-by-point instructions on patient rights and hypothetical situations will enable dying individuals and/or their families to be better informed of potential choices and to remain in control of their own lives. It is this recognition of the individual's right to retain control that makes To Die Well unique among books of its type. Also included are accurate summaries of documents everyone should have, useful histories and information on end-of-life organizations. So pair this book with another favorite - poems, essays, (or perhaps my own Dying Unafraid) - and do yourself and your loved ones a favor by spreading it around.
It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries May 12, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
TO DIE WELL: YOUR RIGHT TO COMFORT, CALM, AND CHOICE IN THE LAST DAYS OF LIFE comes from a leader in the right-to-die movement, and a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who offer insights on turning points in a dying patient's life: one when no reasonable expectation of a cure is possible, the second involving hastening death - the subject of this book. TO DIE WELL focuses on patient rights, physician involvement, and how to stay in control of advance directives. It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries, but for general-interest collections.
Medical commonsense at last ! April 10, 2007
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
At last! Two doctors have written a right-to-die book with the patients' interests first. Very readable by the lay person, bundles of good advice on how a patient's best interests should be protected, and straightforward reporting on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Recommend for instant reading, and filing away for future problems. -- Derek Humphry ('Final Exit')
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
