Who Says You're Dead? Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curi... by Jacob M. Appel

The book is entertaining and extremely pertinent it even has the potential to bring medical laypeople to a better understanding of the challenges of physicians’ medicolegal and ethical decision-making processes, when they might otherwise not have the opportunity to fully grasp the full breadth of each hypothetical’s debate. With most vignettes comprising five pages or less, the book neatly avoids becoming bogged down in detail, which would likely swing the appeal pendulum back toward the medical community. While physicians will appreciate this collection, particularly the additional background citations for each reflection, the nonmedical reader has potentially even more to gain from this book, getting a glimpse into the complex questions that challenge even the most seasoned practitioner. The book tackles themes ranging from some of the more common yet challenging topics physicians are required to address, including end-of-life decision making, informed consent, patient privacy issues, to emerging ethical quandaries such as genetic privacy and cognitive enhancement. Dr Appel provides readers, both health care professionals and otherwise, the mental challenge of answering these questions in Who Says You’re Dead? Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned.įormatted as 79 quick-hitting reflections with six overarching themes, the book effectively provides example vignettes of medical-ethical dilemmas accompanied by a brief discussion of central points of the issues’ debates. Practicing medicine in today’s society is fraught with a seemingly endless supply of ethical questions and moral challenges.

Publication Information: Chapel Hill, NC, Algonquin Books, 2019, 352 pp., $23.95, paperback Book Title: Who Says You’re Dead? Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned Appel takes on hot-button issues that many of us will confront: genetic screening, sexuality, privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality.

Who Says You're Dead? Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curi... by Jacob M. Appel