And A Time To Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life

Sharon Kaufman has written an eye-opening new book that reveals how dying really happens in modern American hospitals. Kaufman, a professor of medical anthropology at UC San Francisco, looks with detachment at how focusing on life-saving treatments can put critically ill patients in an indeterminate zone, suspended between life and death. A series of unflinching case studies holds a mirror up to medical professionals and families, showing how assumptions and misinformation often result in poor outcomes. The book will be of value as a reality check for any health professional who works with terminally-ill patients. Families faced with decisions at the end of life can read the book to get insight into how things actually work behind the scenes. Institutional pathways constrain the flow of events in ways the participants may not realize. Only within the last half-century has the number of people who die in hospitals come to vastly outnumber those who die at home. Most of Kaufman's ...

11:57:00 August 2, 2005, Tuesday (PDT) Source: Growth House News

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