By Charles F. McKhann. 288 pp. New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1998. $30. ISBN 0-300-07631-2.
In A Time to Die, Charles F. McKhann offers a comprehensiveand thoughtful guide to the hotly contested issue of physician-assisteddeath. The author draws on extensive clinical experience inthe treatment of patients with cancer, detailed interviews withseriously ill patients and the clinicians who care for them,and a thorough survey of the literature. He argues that it isethical as a last resort for physicians to help dying patientshasten their deaths by prescribing or administering lethal medicationsin response to their resolute requests, and that physician-assisteddeath should be legalized. Because McKhann believes that legalizationis . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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