(Basic Bioethics.) Edited by Robert H. Blank and Janna C. Merrick. 266 pp. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2005. $32. ISBN 0-262-02574-4.
Death has become a worthy subject of study only late in thedevelopment of modern medicine. Until the 1970s, dying was consideredto be mainly a private issue, embedded in specific social, cultural,and religious contexts. End-of-life decision making is now anessential part of medical practice, since medicine has turnedmany previously lethal diseases into chronic diseases, has thecapacity to relieve the suffering of terminal illness, and facescompletely new ethical arenas, such as those associated withbrain death and organ transplantation. At the same time, well-informedcitizens want to be involved, both in their individual end-of-lifedecisions . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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