Overview

The slow violence being inflicted on our environment-through everything from carbon emissions to plastic pollution-also represents an impending public health catastrophe. Yet standard health care practices are more concerned with short-term outcomes than long-term sustainability. Every resource used to deliver medical care, from IV tubes to antibiotics to electricity, has a significant environmental impact. This raises an urgent ethical dilemma: in striving to improve the health outcomes of individual patients, are we damaging human health on a global scale? In Dying Green, award-winning educator Christine Vatovec offers an engaging study that asks us to consider the broader environmental sustainability of health care. Through a comparative analysis of the care provided to terminally ill patients in a conventional cancer ward, a palliative care unit, and an acute-care hospice facility, she shows how decisions made at a patient's bedside govern the environmental footprint of the healthcare industry. Likewise, Dying Green offers insights on the many opportunities that exist for reducing the ecological impacts of medical practices in general, while also enhancing care for the dying in particular. By envisioning a more sustainable approach to care, this book offers a way forward that is better for both patients and the planet.

Full Product Details

Author:   Christine Vatovec
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.041kg
ISBN:  

9781978832107

ISBN 10:   1978832109
Pages:   186
Publication Date:   14 April 2023
Recommended Age:   From 16 to 99 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction  1 Focal Point: End-of-Life Medical Care 2 Medical Waste 3 Medical Supplies 4 Pharmaceuticals 5 Patients 6 Conclusions and Practical Implications Acknowledgments Appendix A A Note on Methods Appendix B A Note on Theory Appendix C Institutional Data on Materials Used at Hopewell Hospital and Baluster Hospice Notes References Index

Reviews

This remarkable book covers a lot of ground, and does it with rigor, compassion, and humanity. Dying Green will get you to think not just about the greening of health care, but also about how you want to handle the eventual end of your own life-you will want to read this book. --Bill McKibben author of The End of Nature

Dying Green has the potential to break through the superficial greening of hospitals mindset and to address deeper levels of the relationship between health and sustainability. Vatovec has a strong understanding of sustainability and resources. --Tee L. Guidotti author of Health and Sustainability: An Introduction This remarkable book covers a lot of ground, and does it with rigor, compassion, and humanity. Dying Green will get you to think not just about the greening of health care, but also about how you want to handle the eventual end of your own life-you will want to read this book. --Bill McKibben author of The End of Nature

Author Information

CHRISTINE VATOVEC is a research assistant professor at the University of Vermont, an award-winning lecturer, and a fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment.  

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