To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life

A leader in the right-to-die movement, Wanzer advocates measures that allow patients to control decisions about end-of-life treatment and ensure a peaceful death. With the help of Harvard Medical School faculty member Glenmullen (The Antidepressant Solution ), Wanzer, the former head of Harvard University Health Services, provides clear legal and medical guidelines for the terminally ill and their loved ones who are facing these decisions. Drawing on case histories, the author outlines the rights of patients, advises them on how to appoint a health care proxy and on ways to refuse unwanted treatments. Wanzer also supports opting for only comfort care, in which the focus is on minimizing pain and making patients comfortable. Although he emphasizes the need to differentiate between a terminally ill patient's rational decision to end his or her life and suicidal depression, Wanzer argues that when someone is terminally ill and in uncontrollable pain with no hope of improvement, hastening death—through large doses of morphine, refusal of fluids or inhaling helium—should be an option. Wanzer and Glenmullen clearly delineate a patient's rights and provide a wealth of information on a matter most of us would rather not think about. (Apr. 1)