Patient-directed Dying A Call for Legalized Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill

Dr. Preston's terminally ill patients and their families face the predicament of how to die when suffering has been medically extended. Through their conversations, they demonstrate how dying is a process, how physicians alter when and how we die, and why natural death is a misnomer after medical interventions prolong the dying process. They explain why patients'not physicians or others'should be able to direct their dying and make decisions for themselves about when and how to die. Dr. Preston gives compelling reasons why aid in dying is not suicide when used by terminally ill patients, and why physicians who help them die are not assisting suicide. He shows why aid-in-dying is ethical and consistent with other current and legal medical practices that help patients die. He debunks claims that legalized aid in dying would be abused for financial, social, or political reasons. He shows how outdated cultural attitudes impede understanding of how we die, why many physicians withdraw from their dying patients, and how the sanctity-of-life principle has become distorted to obstruct aid in dying. Patient-Directed Dying is a manifesto calling for mercy and reason in helping terminally ill patients die a peaceful death.Preston, Tom is the author of 'Patient-directed Dying A Call for Legalized Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill', published 2006 under ISBN 9780595381449 and ISBN 0595381448.