Dying and Death in Law and Medicine - A Forensic Primer for Health and Legal Professionals

While health professionals may be adequately informed about the legal aspects of many specialized areas of medicine and nursing, they may not totally understand the law applicable to cases of dying patients, or even the legal definition of death itself. In the wake of advances in medical technology, recent court decisions on the right to die, the enactment of natural death and brain death statutes, advance directives and living wills, and growing use of organ transplantation, there has been widespread concern about the legal and ethical issues surrounding these subjects. This book, written by a lawyer-thanatologist, will satisfy these needs. It is the first work to bring together case and statutory law applicable to dying patients, the right to die, advance directives, brain death, and organ transplantation, thus formulating a law of dying and death.

It is also unique as a self-help law finder. Although occasions that require consultation with a lawyer will arise, this work gives health professionals practical guidance on where and how to find legal materials on these issues. This book should also prove immensely useful in summarizing the law concerning dying and death for professional legal counsel. Medical decisions and issues that once were the sole province of doctors, hospitals, patients, and families have become matters of increasing judicial and legislative attention.

List of contents

Preface
Medical Foreword by David V. Schapira
Legal Foreword by Hon. Raphael Steinhardt
Death: Issues and Law
Death Comes Alive
The Dying Patient
The Dying Patient: Nothing But the Truth
The Dying Patient: On the Deathbed
Right to Die
Right to Die: Meanings and Strategy
Playing God: The Issues
The Last Resort
Competence and Incompetence
Advance Directives
Advance Directives and Death with Dignity
Determination of Death
Defining Death
Anatomical Gifts
The Gift of Life: Law and Ethics
Law: Forms and Sources
Law Forms, Systems and Procedures
Sources of Law: How to Look Them Up
Appendices
Death-Related Statutes and Common Law Doctrines
Guide to the Law Library
Table of Cases
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the author

Arthur S. Berger

Product details

• Authors: Arthur S. Berger, Berger Arthur S.
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 10.12.1992
• EAN: 9780275939281
• ISBN: 978-0-275-93928-1
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > Civil law, civil procedural law; USA, LAW / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying, MEDICAL / Forensic Medicine, LAW / Medical Law & Legislation, United States of America, USA, Forensic Medicine, Sociology: death and dying, Sociology: Death & Dying, Medicolegal issues, Laws of specific jurisdictions and specific areas of law, Laws Of Specific Jurisdictions, Current Events and Issues: Law and Crime