When Dr. David Cundiff called me with a proposal to help research and write The Right Medicine I was intrigued but skep tical. His ideas for reform of the US health care system were visionary, radical, and highly original-but would they work? As a Wall Street analyst and long-time student of the health care system, I had my doubts. had read David's book on hospice care, Euthanasia Is Not the I Answer, and was impressed. And I had recently witnessed the slow death of my grandmother from the...

Instances of euthanasia or mercy killing date back to antiquity. However, it is only recently that the unprecedented grassroots efforts to legalize euthana sia have begun building. "Terminal Illness, Assistance with Dying," a California ballot initiative for the No vember 1992 election, might for the first time in modem history legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide by physicians. Similar initiatives are planned in other states. To vote intelligently, citizens in California and throughou...

Scientific facts can be so complicated that only specialists in a field fully appreciate the details, but the nature of everyday practice that gives rise to these facts should be understandable by everyone interested in science. This book describes how scientists bring their own interests and passions to their work, illustrates the dynamics between researchers and the research community, and emphasizes a contextual understanding of science in place of the linear model found in textbooks wi...

We all feel uncomfortable about the role of profit in healthcare, we all have a vague notion that the global $600bn pharmaceutical industry is somehow evil and untrustworthy, but that sense rarely goes beyond a flaky, undifferentiated new age worldview. Bad Pharma puts real flesh on those bones, revealing the rigged evidence used by drug companies. Bad information means bad treatment decisions, which means patients suffer and die: there is no climactic moment of villainy, but drug...

A practical, insightful guide to the moral and ethical standards of healthcareSucceeding in the healthcare field means more than just making a diagnosis and writing a prescription. Healthcare professionals are responsible for convincing patients and their family members of the best course of action and treatments to follow, while knowing how to make the right moral and ethical choices, and so much more. Unlike daunting and expensive texts, Medical Ethics For Dummies offers...

The story of two doctors, a father and son, who practiced in very different times and the evolution of the ethics that profoundly influence health careAs a practicing physician and longtime member of his hospital’s ethics committee, Dr. Barron Lerner thought he had heard it all. But in the mid-1990s, his father, an infectious diseases physician, told him a stunning story: he had physically placed his body over an end-stage patient who had stopped breathing, prevent...

For readers of Being Mortal and Modern Death, an ICU and Palliative Care specialist offers a framework for a better way to exit life that will change our medical culture at the deepest levelIn medical school, no one teaches you how to let a patient die.Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care—to become an ICU physician—and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from...

Contrary to popular belief, most children who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not outgrow the disorders; they become adults who suffer from ADHD. Written by an acknowledged expert in the adult phase of ADHD, this guide will fill the void of available medical information with the latest clinical guidelines and recommended pharmacotherapies for the treatment of the ever-growing population of adult men and women who suffer from the anxiety and restlessness relat...

In this timely handbook, an expert in oncology explains the risk factors for contracting breast cancer and the pathogenesis of the disease, discusses the complexities of diagnosis, and offers a detailed examination of surgical treatments and the latest drug therapies, including raloxifene (Evista®).

This volume provides a practical overview of the ethical issues arising in pediatric practice. The case-based approach grounds the bioethical concepts in real-life situations, covering a broad range of important and controversial topics, including informed consent, confidentiality, truthfulness and fidelity, ethical issues relating to perinatology and neonatology, end-of-life issues, new technologies, and problems of justice and public health in pediatrics. A dedicated section also address...

Observing Bioethics examines the history of bioethics as a discipline related not only to modern biology, medicine, and biotechnology, but also to the core values and beliefs of American society and its courts, legislatures, and media. The book is written from the perspective of two social scientists--a sociologist of medicine(Renee C. Fox) and a historian of medicine (Judith P. Swazey)--who have participated in bioethics since the emergence of this multidisciplinary field more than 30 yea...

Bioethics: The Basics is an introduction to the foundational principles, theories and issues in the study of medical and biological ethics. Readers are introduced to bioethics from the ground up before being invited to consider some of the most controversial but important questions facing us today. Topics addressed include:the range of moral theories underpinning bioethicsarguments for the rights and wrongs of abortion, euthanasia and animal research