Overview

Rapid advances in modern medicine and diagnostic techniques have revolutionized the way we think about death and the processes of dying. Where once death was defined as the absence of respiration or heartbeat, today patients can be kept alive for months or even years hooked up to a respirator and feeding tube. Ivan and Melrose carefully explain the various medical processes involved in death and dying. In so doing they also face the many ethical, moral and legal dilemmas that confront doctors today, as well as the decisions that may have to be taken by relatives. What, they ask, is the meaning of ""life"" when large areas of a person's brain have suffered irreversible damage? And what of the economic quandary when valuable hospital beds are occupied by people in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery?

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Leslie Ivan M.D., FRCSC, former head of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Ottawa is now Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. Dr Ivan is a pioneer in the resuscitation of victims of fresh water drowning. During the Hungarian Revolution he fought against the Soviet Invasion and was awarded the Hungarian Freedom Fighter Memorial Medal and, in 2006, the Order of the Hungarian Republic. In addition to his medical writings he has published a collection of short stories. Maureen Melrose R.N., is an operating nurse by training. During her long nursing career, she has gained valuable insights into the fears and needs, both of patients on the edge of death and of their relatives. She has spent many years as a research assistant, editor and co-author with her husband Leslie Ivan.

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