terminal care

Julia Duane Quinlan recounts her family's struggles to help their daughter, Karen Ann, die with dignity after being left in a permanent vegetative state, and explains why their private battle to shut off life support became a highly public controversy that changed the face of health care.

Contains ten essays in which the authors present a wide range of viewpoints about the issue of euthanasia; and includes a bibliography and an annotated list of relevant organizations.

Provides an intimate view of her work with terminally ill patients as she brings them an acceptance of death.

Sylvia and her mother go to the remote community of Stonewylde in the hope of restoring her failing health, but, in her secret relationship with a village boy, Sylvia discovers that Stonewylde is not at all the idyllic place it appears to be.

Chapters include information on house calls; the use of drawings made at significant times in one's life; patient care; and the issue of sudden death.

Contains information and statistics on topics related to end-of-life issues, providing a brief history of death, examining the definition of death, and covering ethical and medical considerations, seriously ill children, suicide, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, advance directives, legal decisions, health care costs, increased life-span, and public opinion.

Presents various articles which discuss how care of the terminally ill can be improved, how their physical and emotional pain should be addressed, the morality of physicians aiding in the deaths of terminally ill patients, and the right of the terminally ill to die.

The author, a doctor at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitiation Center in Rhode Island, shares stories of Oscar, a resident cat that seems to know instinctively when patients are at the end of their lives.