Last Rights

A Polk Award winner for medical journalism examines how patients and families can regain control of the dying process: "A superb resource." —Kirkus Reviews

With advances in medicine, technology, and daily diet and exercise practices, Americans are living longer than ever before. We have an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful closure—free of pain, among loved ones, with our affairs in order and spiritual calm attained. Instead, most of us discover that our doctor has minimal training in providing end-of-life care, and will seek to extend life no matter how painful, expensive, and futile that effort might be.


Bolstered by both scientific research and intimate portraits of people from all walks of life, Last Rights offers a hopeful, profound vision for patients, doctors, and families: a way to honor people during their greatest vulnerability, a chance for families to reconnect, an opportunity for the medical system to treat patients with ultimate respect and give comfort and compassion to those we most love.


"An uncommon mix of stories and scholarship . . . With candor, clarity, and an advocate's sense of urgency, [the author] seeks to understand why our acute-care system has been so resistant to change and how we can infuse greater humanity to life's final chapter." —Joseph J. Fins, M.D., F.A.C.P., Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and author of A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life's End