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The story of two doctors, a father and son, who practiced in very different times and the evolution of the ethics that profoundly influence health care As a practicing physicianand longtime member of his hospitals ethics committee, Dr. Barron Lerner thought he had heard it all.But in the mid-1990s, his father, an infectious diseases physician, told him a stunning storyhe had physically placed his body over an end-stage patient who had stopped breathing,preventing his colleagues from performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, even thoughCPR was the ethically and legally accepted thing to do. Over the next few years, the senior Dr. Lerner tried to speed the deaths of his seriously ill mother and mother-in-law to spare them further suffering. These stories angered and alarmed the younger Dr.
About the Author
Barron H. Lerner is a Professor of Medicine and Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Lerner received his M.D. in 1986 and his Ph.D. in history in 1996. His book, The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America, published by Oxford University Press, received the William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine and was named one of the 26 most notable books of 2001 by the American Library Association. Dr. Lerner has published extensively in scholarly journals and contributes essays to the the Science Times section of The New York Times, the Times' "Well" blog, Slate, Atlantic.com and the Huffington Post. He has also appeared on numerous NPR broadcasts, including "Fresh Air," "All Things Considered" and "Science Friday." Dr. Lerner's latest book, "The Good Doctor: A Father, A Son and the Evolution of Medical Ethics," was published by Beacon Press in May 2014. You can follow Dr. Lerner at www.DrBarronLerner.com or @barronlerner on Twitter.
