Overview

Over the past thirty years, the way Americans experience death has been dramatically altered. The advent of medical technology capable of sustaining life without restoring health has changed where, when, and how we die. In this revelatory study, medical anthropologist Sharon R. Kaufman examines the powerful center of those changes: the hospital, where most Americans die today. She deftly links the experiences of patients and families, the work of hospital staff, and the ramifications of institutional bureaucracy to show the invisible power of the hospital system in shaping death and our individual experience of it. In doing so, Kaufman also speaks to the ways we understand what it means to be human and to be alive. “An act of courage and a public service.”—San Francisco Chronicle “This beautifully synthesized and disquieting account of how hospital patients die melds disciplined description with acute analysis, incorporating the voices of doctors, nurses, social workers, and patients in a provocative analysis of the modern American quest for a ‘good death.’”—Publishers Weekly “Kaufman exposes the bureaucratic and ethical quandaries that hover over the modern deathbed.”—Psychology Today “Kaufman’s analysis illuminates the complexity of the care of critically ill and dying patients [and] the ambiguity of slogans such as ‘death with dignity,’ ‘quality of life,’ and ‘stopping life support.’ . . . Thought-provoking reading for everyone contemplating the fate of us all.”—New England Journal of Medicine

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9780226426853

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Reviews

[The] style of this book makes it accessible and enjoyable and takes the reader into the world of the modern US hospital that is the place where most Americans die. . . . Highly recommended for anyone interested in end of life care in institutional settings.--Jacqueline H. Watts Mortality This is a book about slow dying in hospitals. . . . Through 27 case studies, Kaufman is able to describe and explore these intricacies thoroughly and with great success.--Allan Kellehear Aging & Society Through 27 compelling narratives, [the author] describes with uncanny accuracy and a gift for vivid detail the complex and often troubled dance that patients, families, physicians, nurses, and hospitals engage in as death nears. The book illuminates the central dilemma of dying in contemporary hospital culture.--Paul B. Bascomb JAMA This is ethnography at its best. . . . [The author's] quietly powerful book, which needs to be read by both family caregivers and medical professionals, belongs on the shelves of public, academic, and medical libraries. -- Library Journal This beautifully synthesized and disquieting account of how hospital patients die melds disciplined description with acute analysis, incorporating the voices of doctors, nurses, social workers, and patients in a provocative analysis of the modern American quest for a 'good death.' Publishers Weekly> -- Publishers Weekly Kaufman's analysis illuminates the complexity of the care of critically ill and dying patients [and] the ambiguity of slogans such as 'death with dignity, ' 'quality of life, ' and 'stopping life support.' . . . Thought-provoking reading for everyone contemplating the fate of us all. -- New England Journal of Medicine Kaufman exposes the bureaucratic and ethical quandaries that hover over the modern deathbed. -- Psychology Today An outstanding, timely examination of how and why people die or are kept alive in U.S. society. . . . You finish the book with a sense that although the future remains unknown, you are at least better informed and perhaps better able to cope with the inevitable. -- USA Today An act of courage and a public service. San Francisco Chronicle> -- San Francisco Chronicle

Through 27 compelling narratives, [the author] describes with uncanny accuracy and a gift for vivid detail the complex and often troubled dance that patients, families, physicians, nurses, and hospitals engage in as death nears. The book illuminates the central dilemma of dying in contemporary hospital culture. -- Paul B. Bascomb JAMA

An act of courage and a public service. This is ethnography at its best. -Library Journal Kaufman exposes the bureaucratic and ethical quandaries that hover over the modern deathbed. -Psychology Today An outstanding, timely examination of how and why people die or are kept alive in U.S. society. . . . You finish the book with a sense that although the future remains unknown, you are at least better informed and perhaps better able to cope with the inevitable. -USA Today Kaufman's analysis illuminates the complexity of the care of critically ill and dying patients [and] the ambiguity of slogans such as death with dignity, ' quality of life, ' and stopping life support.' . . . Thought-provoking reading for everyone contemplating the fate of us all. -New England Journal of Medicine This is a book about slow dying in hospitals. . . . Through 27 case studies, Kaufman is able to describe and explore these intricacies thoroughly and with great success. --Allan Kellehear Aging & Society Through 27 compelling narratives, [the author] describes with uncanny accuracy and a gift for vivid detail the complex and often troubled dance that patients, families, physicians, nurses, and hospitals engage in as death nears. The book illuminates the central dilemma of dying in contemporary hospital culture. --Paul B. Bascomb JAMA [The] style of this book makes it accessible and enjoyable and takes the reader into the world of the modern US hospital that is the place where most Americans die. . . . Highly recommended for anyone interested in end of life care in institutional settings. --Jacqueline H. Watts Mortality Howard Spiro M.D. Emeritus Professor of Medicine Yale University School of Medicine and author of The Power of Hope: A Doctor's Perspective Reading this book is like listening in on the conversations and problems that American physicians have in caring for the dying and their families, the tragic choices for which nobody-not even living wills-- can really plan. Sharon Kaufmann vividly describes the harrowing scenarios, impossible for anyone to control, awaiting those of us who must die in hospitals, or more realistically begin the process of dying, so transformed and so stretched by modern technology.There are good routines for medical care and for cure, but patients and their families, physicians and other healthcare workers, have such different concepts of life and consciousness, of dignity and duty, of faith and obligation, that there can never be agreement on how we die or how we should die.

This is a book about slow dying in hospitals. . . . Through 27 case studies, Kaufman is able to describe and explore these intricacies thoroughly and with great success. --Allan Kellehear Aging & Society Through 27 compelling narratives, [the author] describes with uncanny accuracy and a gift for vivid detail the complex and often troubled dance that patients, families, physicians, nurses, and hospitals engage in as death nears. The book illuminates the central dilemma of dying in contemporary hospital culture. --Paul B. Bascomb JAMA [The] style of this book makes it accessible and enjoyable and takes the reader into the world of the modern US hospital that is the place where most Americans die. . . . Highly recommended for anyone interested in end of life care in institutional settings. --Jacqueline H. Watts Mortality This is ethnography at its best. . . . [The author's] quietly powerful book, which needs to be read by both family caregivers and medical professionals, belongs on the shelves of public, academic, and medical libraries. --Library Journal This beautifully synthesized and disquieting account of how hospital patients die melds disciplined description with acute analysis, incorporating the voices of doctors, nurses, social workers, and patients in a provocative analysis of the modern American quest for a 'good death.' Publishers Weekly> --Publishers Weekly An act of courage and a public service. San Francisco Chronicle> --San Francisco Chronicle Kaufman exposes the bureaucratic and ethical quandaries that hover over the modern deathbed. --Psychology Today Kaufman's analysis illuminates the complexity of the care of critically ill and dying patients [and] the ambiguity of slogans such as 'death with dignity, ' 'quality of life, ' and 'stopping life support.' . . . Thought-provoking reading for everyone contemplating the fate of us all. --New England Journal of Medicine An outstanding, timely examination of how and why people die or are kept alive in U.S. society. . . . You finish the book with a sense that although the future remains unknown, you are at least better informed and perhaps better able to cope with the inevitable. --USA Today

Author Information

Sharon R. Kaufman is professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine; at the Institute for Health & Aging; and in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of The Ageless Self and The Healer's Tale.

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