Preface -- Recommended References for Beginners -- Section I -- Beginnings/Endings: Complex Issues with Pregnancy, Newborns, and Young Children -- Case 1 – Does the Nearness of Death Diminish the Value of a Life? -- Case 2 – When Cultures Collide and a Newborn Almost Dies -- Case 3 – When the Family Won’t Decide -- Case 4 – Aggressive Treatment for a Child’s Inoperable Tumor -- Case 5 – Is There Life After Death? A Case of Post-Mortem Sperm Retrieval -- Section II -- Decision-making: Families in the Mix -- Case 6 – What is the Standard of Care for a Corpse? -- Case 7 – When the Palliative Care Team Got Fired -- Case 8 – A Young Woman’s Wish to Die -- Case 9 – When Parents Contest an Adult Child’s Advance Directive -- Case 10 – Please Stop Torturing Me – Unless my Wife is in the Room! -- Case 11 – Who Should Make Treatment Decisions for a Battered Spouse? -- Section III -- Autonomy and other Ideals: Balancing Benefits and Burdens -- Case 12 – Something More Important than Life -- Case 13 – Are There Limits on Futile Care for Patients in the U.S. Illegally? -- Case 14 – To Treat . . . or Not to Treat? -- Case 15 – A Patient’s Right to Treatment (and a Physician’s Right to Refuse) -- Case 16 – A Depressed Caregiver Neglects His Own Health -- Conclusion.

This casebook provides a set of cases that reveal the current complexity of medical decision-making, ethical reasoning, and communication at the end of life for hospitalized patients and those who care for and about them. End-of-life issues are a controversial part of medical practice and of everyday life. Working through these cases illuminates both the practical and philosophical challenges presented by the moral problems that surface in contemporary end-of-life care. Each case involved real people, with varying goals and constraints,who tried to make the best decisions possible under demanding conditions. Though there were no easy solutions, nor ones that satisfied all stakeholders, there are important lessons to be learned about the ways end-of-life care can continue to improve. This advanced casebook is a must-read for medical and nursing students, students in the allied health professions, health communication scholars, bioethicists, those studying hospital and public administration, as well as for practicing physicians and educators. .

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