About this item
Hospital intensive care units have changed when and how we die--and not always for the better. The ICU is a new world, one in which once-fatal diseases can be cured and medical treatments greatly enhance our chances of full recovery. But, paradoxically, these places of physical healing can exact a terrible toll, and by focusing on technology rather than humanity, they too often rob the dying of their dignity. By some accounts, the expensive medical treatments provided in ICUs also threaten to bankrupt the nation.In an attempt to give patients a voice in the ICU when they might not otherwise have one, the living will was introduced in 1969, in response to several notorious cases. These documents were meant to keep physicians from ignoring patients' and families' wishes in stressful situations.
About the Author
Samuel Morris Brown (born 1972) , a medical researcher and physician, is Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah and founder and director of the Center for Humanizing Critical Care at Intermountain Medical Center. He studies two sets of scientific problems: how the heart functions during serious infection ("sepsis") and how best to support patients and families during life-threatening illness in the intensive care unit. In his limited free time, Samuel studies and writes about the human and cultural meanings of kinship, embodiment, illness, and mortality.
