1st Edition

Deathright Culture, Medicine, Politics And The Right To Die

By James M. Hoefler Copyright 1994
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    Right-to-die issues are no longer confined to the back corridors of hospitals or the front pages of newspapers that trumpet news of Dr. Kevorkian's latest assisted suicide. A perverse combination of high-tech medicine, consumerism, demographic trends, and economic realities is forcing increasing numbers of Americans and their families to deal with

    Preface -- Policy Restraint and the Denial of Death -- Policy Restraint and the Cultural Context of Death -- Policy Activism and Medical Technology: Emergence of the Right-to-Die Scenario -- Policy Activism and Medical Professionalism: The Doctor-Patient Disconnection -- Social Activism and Health-Care Consumerism -- Social Activism and the Happy-Death Movement -- Policy Mediation in the State Courts: Consensus on the Cutting Edge -- Policy Mediation and the State Legislatures: Common Ground, Divergence, and Liberal Trends -- Policy Activism, Restraint, Mediation, and the Right to Die

    Biography

    James M. Hoefler is associate professor of political science and coordinator of the policy studies program at Dickinson College. He is the coauthor with Brian Kamoie of Deathright: Culture, Medicine, Politics, and the Right to Die (WestviewPress 1994) and is the coauthor with A. Lee Fritschler of Smoking and Politics: Policy Making and the Federal Bureaucracy (1996).