By Marjorie B. Zucker and Howard D. Zucker. 201 pp. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1997. $64.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-521-56020-9 (cloth); 0-521-56877-3 (paper).
It is sometimes useful to remind oneself of the rapidity withwhich social change now occurs. Thirty years ago, at the beginningof the modern era of bioethics, the central issue was whetherpatients had the freedom to refuse the life-sustaining treatmentsthat many health care professionals felt compelled to provide,even when the treatment seemed purposeless to patients. Althoughpatients are unfortunately still cajoled into accepting unwantedtreatment in quite a few quarters today, in many other clinicalsettings the pendulum has now swung the other way. Increasingly,patients and families seem to be demanding life-sustaining treatmentthat health . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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