End-of-Life Decisions: A Psychosocial Perspective.

Abstract

The recent defeat of a referendum to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Michigan (not to mention the performance of euthanasia on national television by a prominent pathologist) has underscored continued public interest in issues surrounding medical care delivered at the end of life. In a manner similar to its relative silence during the abortion debate in the 1980s, the medical community has been generally reticent to forward cogent arguments supporting viable models of end-of-life care. The group of essays compiled by Steinberg and Youngner are a welcome aberration to this disturbing trend.