On Life and Death: The Right to Choose at the End of Life: Law, Ethics, Medicine, Autonomy, and Human Dignity

Who should decide when medicine can prolong life, but can no longer restore health?

On Life and Death explores the legal, medical, and ethical questions surrounding the end of life—and the human beings whose wishes, suffering, and dignity lie at the center of those decisions.

Dr. Dvir Levin brings together perspectives from healthcare, law, history, and ethics to examine how societies balance the preservation of life with respect for personal choice. With particular attention to Israel’s Dying Patient Law and comparisons with approaches around the world, the book traces the development of modern end-of-life care and the controversies that continue to shape it.

Topics explored include:

• Patient autonomy, informed consent, and the right to refuse treatment.
• Advance medical directives and decision-making when patients cannot express their wishes.
• Life-sustaining treatment, medical futility, and the boundaries of professional responsibility.
• Palliative care, pain relief, and palliative sedation.
• Euthanasia, medically assisted dying, and differing legal approaches.
• The roles of families, physicians, nurses, and institutional committees.
• The protection of vulnerable people and the challenges of making meaningful choices under distress.

Written for healthcare professionals, legal practitioners, students, policymakers, and readers seeking a deeper understanding of these difficult questions, On Life and Death connects legal principles with the realities of care.

At its heart is a question that reaches beyond any single law or medical decision: how can we respect a person’s voice and dignity when the choices become most difficult?