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Final Acts
Death, Dying, and the Choices We Make
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Edited by:
Nan Bauer-Maglin
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With contributions by:
June Bingham
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2010
About this book
Today most people die gradually, from incremental illnesses, rather than from the heart attacks or fast-moving diseases that killed earlier generations. Given this new reality, the essays in Final Acts explore how we can make informed and caring end-of-life choices for ourselves and for those we loveùand what can happen without such planning.
Contributors include patients, caretakers, physicians, journalists, lawyers, social workers, educators, hospital administrators, academics, psychologists, and a poet, and among them are ethicists, religious believers, and nonbelievers. Some write moving, personal accounts of "good" or 'bad" deaths; others examine the ethical, social, and political implications of slow dying. Essays consider death from natural causes, suicide, and aid-in-dying (assisted suicide).
Writing in a style free of technical jargon, the contributors discuss documents that should be prepared (health proxy, do-not-resuscitate order, living will, power of attorney); decision-making (over medical interventions, life support, hospice and palliative care, aid-in-dying, treatment location, speaking for those who can no longer express their will); and the roles played by religion, custom, family, friends, caretakers, money, the medical establishment, and the government.
For those who yearn for some measure of control over death, the essayists in Final Acts, from very different backgrounds and with different personal and professional experiences around death and dying, offer insight and hope.
Author / Editor information
Nan Bauer-Maglin was formerly a professor of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, and academic director of the CUNY Baccalaureate Program. She is the coeditor of "Bad Girls/Good Girls": Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties (with Donna Perry), Women Confronting Retirement: A Nontraditional Guide, and Cut Loose: (Mostly) Older Women on the End of Their (Mostly) Long-Term Relationships (Rutgers University Press).
Donna Perry, a professor of English, teaches literature, writing, and women's studies courses at William Paterson University. She is the editor of Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out and coeditor (with Nan Bauer-Maglin) of "Bad Girls/Good Girls": Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties (Rutgers University Press).
Donna Perry, a professor of English, teaches literature, writing, and women's studies courses at William Paterson University. She is the editor of Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out and coeditor (with Nan Bauer-Maglin) of "Bad Girls/Good Girls": Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties (Rutgers University Press).
Reviews
"If there's one profound lesson to be learned from Final Acts, it is that most of us are woefully uninformed and unprepared to make wise end-of-life choices. A good place to begin is by reading this book."
— Eleanor Foa Dienstag, Transition Network Newsletter"The essays in Final Acts offer all manner of paths, exploring a new relationship with death. Wise and gentle guides, Bauer-Maglin and Perry reveal meaning and purpose in the journey."
— Barbara Coombs Lee, President, Compassion & Choices"An insightful, complex, and pragmatic 'how-to' guide for dying in the Western world. Final Acts a is strong, well-composed, and balanced tool kit to help us all not only change our system to better maintain the integrity of the dying, but to enter into the end of life with confidence and control."
— Global Action on Aging"Final Acts provides the reader with persuasive and enlightening views on the controversial complex issues that are illustrated in the personal stories. It is a collection of moving stories and compelling essays."
— The GerontologistTopics
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Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Part One. Personal Stories
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Ruthann Robson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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June Bingham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Nancy Barnes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Susan Perlstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Sara M. Evans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Carol K. Oyster Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Jean Levitan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Mimi Schwartz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Alan Pope Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Mary Jumbelic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Part Two. Perspectives
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Stephen P. Kiernan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Kathryn Temple Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Natalie R. Hannon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Candace Gauthier Cummins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Cherylynn MacGregor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Kathryn L. Tucker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Margaret Cruikshank Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Ira Byock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Marge Piercy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF |
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 7, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780813549088
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
344
eBook ISBN:
9780813549088
Keywords for this book
end-of-life choices; Final Acts; gradual death; incremental illnesses; heart attacks; fast-moving diseases; informed choices; caring choices; planning; contributors; patients; caretakers; physicians; journalists; lawyers; social workers; educators; hospital administrators; academics; psychologists; poet; ethicists; religious believers; nonbelievers; personal accounts; ethical implications; social implications; political implications; slow dying; natural causes; suicide; aid-in-dying; assisted suicide; health proxy; do-not-resuscitate order; living will; power of attorney; decision-making; medical interventions; life support; hospice; palliative care; treatment location; religion; custom; family; friends; money; medical establishment; government; control over death; insight; hope.
Audience(s) for this book
General/trade;
