In a moving examination of one of the most troubling issues of our time, Lonny Shavelson puts a human face on the legal and ethical discussions that surround assisted suicide. By recounting with great intimacy and compassion the personal histories of five terminally ill people, he exposes the depth and complexity of this explosive issue.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Shavelson, an emergency-room physician and photojournalist in Berkeley, Calif., advocates physician-assisted suicide as an option for people who want to end the agony of a prolonged illness-but only after all other options, including hospice care, have been explored. He describes how he helped a friend commit suicide to shorten her struggle with terminal brain cancer. He also tells of his involvement in other cases of euthanasia, either as passive observer or as adviser to people who chose to end their lives and to their troubled families. These include a gay circus trapeze perfomer afflicted with AIDS; a quadriplegic frustrated in his quest for romantic love; and mystery writer Mary Bowen Hall, a victim of metastatic breast cancer. Shavelson's graphic photographs of his subjects at various stages of their ordeals add an unusually immediate dimension to this sensitive, helpful guide.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From The New England Journal of Medicine
"The personality and varied talents of the author as journalist, photographer, and physician (are evident in this remarkable book, which presents moving and thought-provoking accounts of assisted death. . . . Shavelson challenges the simplistic thinking characteristic of much of the debate on this subject."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't regret reading A Chosen Death,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide (Hardcover)
Dr. Lonny Shavelson offers a powerful, wonderful, and rare
insight into the medicalization of death in America. He
chronicles several terminally ill individuals and their
attempts to die with dignity. I couldn't put the book down.
Courbet Anderson, Gerontologist
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A penetrating look at assisted suicide,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide (Hardcover)
The author is a physician who followed several cases of
dying persons who from the onset of their terminal illnesses
expressed a desire to commit suicide towards the end.
Dr.Shavelson tracked these cases over 3-4 years and records
the medical and emotional roller-coaster the patients
went through. The best examination on a personal basis
of assisted suicide so far published.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A moving read.,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide (Hardcover)
This is one of the finest books in this genre. Stories about real people and the caring doctor who befriended them, tended them and saw to their final wishes. Highly recommended!
Betsy S.
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
The day Renee Sahm decided to kill herself I was completely unprepared. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
local chapter leaders, legalize assisted suicide, hospice physicians, physician assistance, hospice unit, planned suicide, hospice team, active euthanasia Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Joan Agnes, Kelly Niles, Hemlock Society, Final Exit, Ram Dass, Mary Hall, Derek Humphry, Renee Sahm, San Francisco, Pierre Nadeau, David Rivlin, United States, Mary Bowen Hall, Jim Curly, Gene Robbins, Clarissa Ramstead, Dave Niles, National Hospice Organization, Southern California, Aid-In-Dying Review Committee, Bob Bowen, George Howe Colt, Ira Byock, Steve Jamison, Timothy Quill New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The day Renee Sahm decided to kill herself I was completely unprepared. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
local chapter leaders, legalize assisted suicide, hospice physicians, physician assistance, hospice unit, planned suicide, hospice team, active euthanasia Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Joan Agnes, Kelly Niles, Hemlock Society, Final Exit, Ram Dass, Mary Hall, Derek Humphry, Renee Sahm, San Francisco, Pierre Nadeau, David Rivlin, United States, Mary Bowen Hall, Jim Curly, Gene Robbins, Clarissa Ramstead, Dave Niles, National Hospice Organization, Southern California, Aid-In-Dying Review Committee, Bob Bowen, George Howe Colt, Ira Byock, Steve Jamison, Timothy Quill New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 20
books:
See all 20 books this book cites
26
books
cite this book:
See all 26 books citing this book
- Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, 3rd Edition by Derek Humphry on 12 pages
- The Savage God: A Study of Suicide by A. Alvarez on page 122, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Least Worst Death: Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life by Margaret Pabst Battin on page 153, and Back Matter
- The Hospice Movement by Sandol Stoddard on page 207, and Back Matter
- New England Journal of Medicine (5 Year Cumulative Index 1984-1988) by Marcia Angell in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 20 books this book cites
- Hospice or Hemlock?: Searching for Heroic Compassion by Constance Putnam on 6 pages
- Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die by Wesley J. Smith in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Eye of the Heart: Knowing the Human Good in the Euthanasia Debate (Lonergan Studies) by William F. Sullivan in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- AIDS And Mental Health Practice: Clinical and Policy Issues by R Dennis Shelby on page 208
- A Midwife through the Dying Process: Stories of Healing and Hard Choices at the End of Life by Timothy E. Quill on page 177
See all 26 books citing this book
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