A Life Worth Living: A Doctor’s Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era
A Life Worth Living: A Doctor’s Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era Books
- ISBN13: 9780374532031
- Shape up: New
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Product Description
Critical illness is a fact of life. Even those of us who delight in decades of excellent health are touched by it eventually, either in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. And when this happens, we grapple with serious and often confusing choices about how best to live with our afflictions.
A Life Worth Living is a book for people facing these trying decisions. Dr. Robert Martensen draws on decades of experience with patients and friends to explore the life cycle of serious illness. He connects private tales with reflections on mortality, human agency, and the value of cold-edge technology in caring for the critically ill. Timely questions emerge: To what extent should efforts to extend human life be made? What is the value of nontraditional medical treatment? How has the American healthcare system affected treatment of the critically ill? And finally, what are our doctors’ responsibilities to us as patients, and where do those responsibilities end?
Using poignant case studies, Martensen demonstrates how we and our loved ones can maintain dignity and resilience in the face of life’s most daunting circumstances.
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I didn’t want to rate this book because I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it as a whole . So please ignore my one star..
Anyone who is considering reading this should probably remember that we say a doctor ‘practices medicine’ meaning it is not an exact science . Another consideration is simply that it is impossible for a doctor to invest too much emotion into a patient / physician relationship because it may possibly interfere with her / his ability to make a reasonable approach to care .
It is a delicate line they walk and there are no simple answers .
Before anyone else starts to go off on the medical profession they need to question themselves honestly …
If you were in a situation where you were going to court and your attourney told you up fron that there was a certain % of opportunity that you’d lose and go to jail / be place to death . If you lost that case , that battle , would you then in turn be able to sue said attourney for millions of dollars ? (it would be thrown out of court) This is the standard some people hold doctors to . They are after all as human and real as their patients .
Rating: 1 / 5
This book is very informative relative to various options for people experiencing life-threatening issues and end-of-life options. This book will be used for a book report to a Study Club.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is one of the best commentaries on plotting one’s medical interventions at any age
Rating: 5 / 5
By telling tales about his patients and or friends Dr. Martensen brings up issues that many of us may have to reckon about when dealing with the impending demise of a loved one or of ourselves. Modern medicine can sometimes do miraculous things for sick folks. When the result is complete recovery or a life worth living than the cost (in suffering and dollars) is worth it. But what about if treatment only prolongs suffering? There’s no simple answers (and to his credit Dr. Martensen doesn’t supply any) but after reading this book, at least one will be armed with a few questions and thoughts to start a dialogue with a loved one or with their or your doctor. This is a thoughtful and plotting provoking book that will stay on my bookshelf unless I lend it to a supporter.
Rating: 4 / 5
I teach medical ethics at a community college to prospective nurses, bio-technicians, and other linked health concentrators; consequently, I read “A Life Worth Living”, a Christmas gift from a supporter, a nurse who confronts ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, with the hope of procuring some value, some insight that would be enlightening for me personally, and professionally. I am pleased to report that my aspirations have been met; this book has significant earn.
As an emergency room doctor, Robert Martensen is in a unique position, like a career soldier fighting an interminable battle, recounting his experiences and perceptions to the majority of us who get to face similar situations only at specific points in life – those times when health and end-of-life decisions affect us, or like ones. Since we cannot escape the existential reality of sickness and death, Dr. Martensen, through his book, invites us to reflect on those very issues, the Hobson’s choice scenarios that disquiet our spirit, but are inevitable.
The following list delineates some of the essential questions and concepts addressed by Dr. Martensen in his book, “A Life Worth Living” – stuff that should inspire internal discussions:
- When is enough, enough? (…forgoing aggressive treatment for palliative care…)
- Should therapeutic privilege (paternalism) ever trump a patient’s autonomy?
- Should children have a voice in their health care?
- When is a person not a person?
- Advanced directives are essential. (Let people die of ancient age again…)
- Critical illness drains personhood,
- Should exceptions to the “whole-brain” definition of death be permitted?
- Baby Doe Set of laws: Our history of denying treatment for Down’s babies with duodenal atresia.
- Arthur Imhof’s compelling research involving life expectancy beyond 80 years of age.
- When is a ventilator an apt choice?
- Health care is huge business.
- Principle of double-effect: “A fig leaf for euthanasia”.
- Rest home: death with dignity.
- Ethics committees / boards should be empowered.
- Need more general practitioners ( communication / coordination); need to improve community-based health
infrastructure (… treating our most vulnerable…).
- To be compliant or non-compliant; and, the importance of control and resiliency.
I enthusiastically urge this book to everyone… ( I am grateful to my supporter…)
Rating: 5 / 5