The life of an unconscious, terminally ill father is prolonged by his stubborn daughters over the advice of doctors. Parents of a permanently unconscious child deny the hopelessness of her condition for seven years until faced with having to care for her at home. A woman’s wish to die but still receive treatment for pain is at first not accepted by her doctor. These are a few of the scenarios described in this emotionally engaging and thought-provoking book. Physicians, philosophers, theologians, and a legal expert recount a dozen revealing stories about how moral decisions are made in modern hospitals. As the question of medical treatment moves from what is possible to what is proper, more and more people will face the issues raised in this book, whether as patients, relatives, or practitioners.

CHARLES M. CULVER, recently chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, NH and a professor in psychiatry and medical ethics at Dartmouth College and in law at Vermont Law School, currently lives in Argentina. His involvement in numerous medical ethics projects there is helping to produce an inter-American dialogue and to shape the future of biomedical ethics in Latin America.