Death As a Salesman: What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide [Paperback]

Brian Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

Recognized as one of the definitive handbooks in the battle against assisted suicide, this clearly written analysis examines the issue from numerous perspectives. Chapters include: The story of Jack Kervokian; the history of the Hemlock Society; real answers to pain and depression; hospice care; medical ethics; the social history of assisted suicide; and much more.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Death As A Salesman is incisive. It's a logical and easy read on a difficult and emotional subject. Brian Johnston drives home, in an accessible and engaging way, why 'Thou shalt not kill.' still makes sense." --Professor David B. Warner, University of Steubenville

"This book is a tremendous resource for anyone called on to address the issue of 'assisted suicide.' And since we're all going to die, and know friends and family who will likely go before us, it is an issue facing us all!" --Dr. Margaret Anderson

"This is what I've been looking for, it spells out all the dangers that I could see, but couldn't easily explain. I'm going to be giving copies away." --Susan Singleterry --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Brian Johnston is the Western Region Director of the National Right to Life Committee. He also serves as Commissioner with the California Commission on Aging, as well as on that state's Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators and the board of directors of the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled. He is a frequent advocate for the medically vulnerable and spokesman on the threat of legalizing "assisted suicide." He has appeared on CNN, World News Tonight, McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and many other programs. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: New Regency Pub (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964112507
• ISBN-13: 978-0964112506
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,284,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and compelling, this book changed my mind !, September 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Death As a Salesman: What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide (Paperback)

I came to this book with a condescending snicker on my face. I was sure it would rattle through old platitudes and moral hype, but it immediately challenged that point of view with clear and compelling evidence that assisted suicide is, and has been, a very bad idea for the vulnerable and depressed. Johnston tells the story of the Hemlock Society and its founder, Derek Humphry; factual and chilling. Kevorkian is skewered by his own words. The Dutch experiment is documented exhaustively and it is clearly something we wouldn't want to try. The threat of manipulating older people (perhaps for their money, perhaps because we're just tired of hearing them chatter) is in fact very real. I liked the historical overview, the tasteful graphics, the liner notes, and the Qand A section. I particularly liked the stuff on copy-cat suicide and Courtney Love! This book is not dry and stiff, it's actually pretty cool. Neat cover too

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Work on Euthanasia, June 25, 2009

By 

Ronald C. Payne - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death As a Salesman: What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide (Paperback)

This very succinct book illustrates what is wrong with euthanasia. There are many things wrong with it, but the core problem is not just a debate over the facts, (i.e. what is going on in the Netherlands, the realities of pain management, etc.) but a spiritual struggle. Since the dawn of history, humans have always had dependents in their midst who are infirm through age or sickness. How societies have treated such people is a good measure of the moral health of that society.

How is this the case? Well, those that kill the weak implicitly are saying that the value of human life is dependent on what a person can do. If a person can move about, communicate, think rationally, than they are worth helping. If they lack any of these (or a combination of these) than their lives are meaningless. Death would be a mercy for such human non-persons. Oftentimes such individuals are deemed a nuisance since they don't contribute anything to society but drain resources. Implicit in this statement is that being a cog in the larger social wheel is the key measure of a life's value. Absent from all this, is the notion that human life is valuable in and of itself. This Christian notion is fundamentally democratic while euthanasia represents the absolute opposite in both Christian and democratic terms. As Belgian physician Philipe Schepens puts it:

"Euthanasia constitutes a major breach against the laws of humanity. It could in fact signify the abandoning of the very concept of democracy and relegate us to a new world and society which will be totalitarian. A society in which people may dispose of the very lives of others, where you have to be declared fit by others to receive from society the right to live. A society in which the individual can exist only if he is wanted by others, and who therefore ceases to have absolute value. A society in which the weak must yield to the stronger. This is more than decadence. This is a gradual return to the law of the jungle, to an animalistic society where the survival of the fittest is the rule."

The ancient Greeks condemned suicide and even the Greek term `euthanasia' which means `good death' is a neologism which was never used by the ancients in the same way we use the term. This tradition is summed up in the Hippocratic Oath, "I will give no deadly medicine, even if asked, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect." Hippocrates, the Greek doctor who first really deserved the name, as he separated the practice of medicine from magic, knew that a physician who could kill as readily as he could heal, would have a trust deficit with his patients to say the least. Killing the weak is not a new enlightened concept, but an old and rejected one.

The rest of the book discuses the horrors of the euthanasia experiment in the Netherlands, the realities of pain management, and good hospice care. The other major topic are those vulnerable to euthanasia. The poor, elderly, depressed, disabled and infirm are obvious targets. Such people deserve love and care, rather than encouragement to commit suicide. Ultimately assisted suicide is for those that society no longer cares for. It responds to the human need for love in times of distress with the coldness of intentionally taking such people out of this world an out of our lives.

"The man who kills a man kills a man. The man who kills himself kills all men. As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world." G.K. Chesterton

"Hold back those who are being drawn to death," Book of Proverbs