To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life

by Sidney Wanzer, Joseph Glenmullen, Sidney H. Wanzer

Book Overview

Knowing our rights to refuse treatment, and ways to bring death earlier if pain or distress cannot be alleviated, will spare us the frightening helplessness that can rob our last days of meaning and personal connection. Drs. Wanzer and Glenmullen clarify what patients should insist of their doctors, including the right to enough pain medication even if it shortens life. Everyone needs their wise and comforting advice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 073821163X
• ISBN13: 9780738211633
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Very informative book.

This is the most informative book that I have read and I have read quite a few since my mother has been in a nursing home for 6 years. I, along with others, always think doctors know best and let them intimidate us when we ask questions regarding their choice of treatment, etc. After reading this book I will be more assertive and not be put off by asking questions. If in doubt - ask why! I also will have additional paperwork drawn up to add to my Living Will & Durable Power of Attorney for Health so that there can be no misunderstanding or questions as to what I would want if I was unable to make my own decisions. This will also relieve the guilt-burden from my children. We all need to address these issues. We need to have our electives known concerning our own health.

To Die Well

This is the book for anyone that desires to have control of their lives and bodies during their last days.

Useful information to help you live, and die, well

This book should be on the shelf of everyone who thinks he or she might indeed die some day, and on the shelves of caregivers and hospice volunteers and end-of-life professionals everywhere as well. It is honest, easily readable and crammed with useful information every thinking person should have. The authors identify the times - introducing the helpful concept of "turning points" - which most of us will encounter as our health declines, and outline how we can take charge of our lives by recognizing these times. The first is when "there is no reasonable expectation of a cure or of restoring health;" the second is when the prospect of hastening death may appropriately be considered. While the authors are physicians, and some of the writing seems aimed toward physician-readers, the book is for everyone and accessible for the lay reader. Its point-by-point instructions on patient rights and hypothetical situations will enable dying individuals and/or their families to be better informed of potential choices and to remain in control of their own lives. It is this recognition of the individual's right to retain control that makes To Die Well unique among books of its type. Also included are accurate summaries of documents everyone should have, useful histories and information on end-of-life organizations. So pair this book with another favorite - poems, essays, (or perhaps my own Dying Unafraid) - and do yourself and your loved ones a favor by spreading it around.

It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries

TO DIE WELL: YOUR RIGHT TO COMFORT, CALM, AND CHOICE IN THE LAST DAYS OF LIFE comes from a leader in the right-to-die movement, and a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who offer insights on turning points in a dying patient's life: one when no reasonable expectation of a cure is possible, the second involving hastening death - the subject of this book. TO DIE WELL focuses on patient rights, physician involvement, and how to stay in control of advance directives. It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries, but for general-interest collections.

Medical commonsense at last !

At last! Two doctors have written a right-to-die book with the patients' interests first. Very readable by the lay person, bundles of good advice on how a patient's best interests should be protected, and straightforward reporting on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Recommend for instant reading, and filing away for future problems. -- Derek Humphry ('Final Exit')