@article{867206,
      recid = {867206},
      author = {Livne, Roi,},
      title = {Values at the end of life : the logic of palliative care  /},
      pages = {1 online resource (x, 341 pages)},
      abstract = {America's health care system was built on the principle  that life should be prolonged whenever possible, regardless  of the costs. This commitment has often meant that patients  spend their last days suffering from heroic interventions  that extend their life by only weeks or months.  Increasingly, this approach to end-of-life care is coming  under scrutiny, from a moral as well as a financial  perspective. Sociologist Roi Livne documents the rise and  effectiveness of hospice and palliative care, and growing  acceptance of the idea that a life consumed by suffering  may not be worth living. Values at the End of Life combines  an in-depth historical analysis with an extensive study  conducted in three hospitals, where Livne observed  terminally ill patients, their families, and caregivers  negotiating treatment. Livne describes the ambivalent,  conflicted moments when people articulate and act on their  moral intuitions about dying. Interviews with medical staff  allowed him to isolate the strategies clinicians use to  help families understand their options. As Livne  discovered, clinicians are advancing the idea that  invasive, expensive hospital procedures often compound a  patient's suffering. Affluent, educated families were more  readily persuaded by this moral calculus than those of less  means. Once defiant of death--or even in denial--many  American families and professionals in the health care  system are beginning to embrace the notion that less  treatment in the end may be better treatment.--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/867206},
}