LIFE, DEATH AND THE DOCTOR

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 17, 1968

Dr. Lasagna, who is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins and one of the more liberal spokesmen of a conservative profession, considers further Doctors' Dilemmas (1962) some of which proliferate from the doctor's failure to extend care or cure from the sick individual to the sick society. Some of the pieces here have had previous magazine (New Republic, etc.) appearance and they deal with many aspects of modern medicine (social, legal, ethical) in a critical but not comminatory fashion. He considers the need for more and more modern medical schools, and discusses preventable ailments (whether automobile accidents or smoking), the mongoloid or retardate. However a major number of the pieces deal with the problems of controlling life and death: from the pill, which he qualifies strongly, to the obsolescence of the abortion laws to the handling of terminal illnesses and euthanasia--""a rigid, dogmatic attitude toward death is historically, scientifically and morally indefensible."" Throughout--the arguments and supportive evidence are interesting, considered and cogent. A just about obligatory antidote to much that has lately appeared.

Pub Date: June 17, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION