Deciding Who Lives: Fateful Choices in the Intensive-Care Nursery [Hardcover]

Renee R. Anspach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0520052684 | ISBN-13: 978-0520052680

In this powerful and probing look at the reality of everyday choices in neonatal intensive care units, Renée Anspach explores the life-and-death dilemmas that have fueled national debate. Using case studies taken during sixteen months of extensive interviewing and observation, Anspach examines the roles of parents, doctors, nurses, and bioethicists in deciding whether critically ill newborns--be they premature, terminally ill, or severely malformed--should be saved by medical technology, or at least kept alive a little longer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Anspach's book provides a readable and, in my view, largely accurate account of how intensive-care professionals approach life-and-death decisions. We all have much to learn in reflecting on the process she details." -- Joel Frader, M.D., Journal of General Internal Medicine

"In making an argument for the social science paradigm in bioethics, Anspach's work is first-rate: coherent in its presentation, well organized and flawlessly written. . . . [Anspach] emerges as one of the finest theoretically ambitious field workers in medical sociology today." -- Daniel F. Chambliss, Contemporary Sociology

"This book is a clear challenge for further consideration of the nature of our moral life and of how we address the complex ethical questions that continue to perplex us. . . . [Anspach] has written a valuable and fascinating book that will be of interest to a wide audience." -- Mark J. Hanson, Society

About the Author

Renée R. Anspach is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (April 30, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520052684
• ISBN-13: 978-0520052680
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,731,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely interesting and readable, December 9, 2007

By 

L. Mann "Books, Cats, Life is Good" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Deciding Who Lives: Fateful Choices in the Intensive-Care Nursery (Paperback)

This is very informative, and thought-provoking, and fulfills the intent of it's title. As a nurse and a parent, I realize the ambivalency felt by those who are involved with a baby needing intensive care. It will help those who have never been there understand just what a baby experiences in the Intensive-Care Nursery. Keep in mind though that this book was published in 1993, and it's statistics are not up-to-date.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent study, April 13, 2010

By 

TowerMoose (La Jolla, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deciding Who Lives: Fateful Choices in the Intensive-Care Nursery (Paperback)

Anspach shows how different groups of people (nurses, parents, surgeons, etc.) weigh life-and-death decisions. She puts the decisions in legal, institutional, political, economic and professional contexts. In other words, she describes the complexity and nuance of these decisions. Her prose is vivid and sensitive: you can imagine yourself on the scene and almost hear the anguish and frustration of some of the people she interviewed.

Anspach brilliantly shows how the fates and troubles of a wide variety of individuals are shaped by larger social forces. This book is sociology at its best.