In the Arms of Others: A Cultural History of the Right-To-Die in America

"As we think about how we hope to die," writes Peter Filene, "we need to take into account the perspectives of history and culture. They will help us understand the ambiguities that await us and the choices we want to make or to have made for us, so that each of us can give his or her life the kind of ending it deserves."

Filene begins by introducing his reader to the 19th-century tradition of the "good death" (the literal translation of the word "euthanasia"). At a time when disease was usually incurable, he explains, a gentle death, often involving drugs in "as large a dose as needed for a peaceful passing," was the best an ill person could hope for. Using the Karen Ann Quinlan case as a benchmark, the author then sifts through the late-20th-century issues around dying, drawing in the reader with stories of people who have themselves faced modern dying's dilemmas.

"Modern medicine," says the author, "produced modern dying"; no longer always a single event, but a "prolonged process," requiring deliberation and decision-making for doctors, families, judges, and the dying themselves. Faced with this process, the author and his subjects ask: "How can we die with dignity?" This intelligent, compassionate, finely written book is Filene's contribution towards an answer. --Maria Dolan