No Good Deed: A Story of Medicine, Murder Accusations, and the Debate over How We Die - Softcover

Cohen M.D., Lewis Mitchell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061721778 ISBN 13: 9780061721779

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2011

Synopsis

On a blustery night, detectives from the Massachusetts State Police knocked on Amy Gleason's door. Gleason, along with fellow nurse Kim Hoy, had helped a patient deal with pain and suffering at the end of her life. Now the patient was dead, and the two nurses were being investigated for murder. Both believed they had done the right thing, but they had no idea what it would cost them.

In this captivating and powerful true story, Dr. Lewis M. Cohen uses the experiences of Gleason, Hoy, and the nursing assistant who accused them of murder to explore what happens when decisions about end-of-life care shift from the hospital to the courtroom and the church. Tracing this issue from the uproar over Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to the controversial figure of Jack Kevorkian, and to the legitimate threat of serial killer medical professionals, Cohen goes behind the scenes on both sides of this debate. He examines how advances in modern medicine have given us tremendous tools for prolonging life but have also forced us to address how we treat patients who are dying and suffering.

About this title

About the Author:

Lewis M. Cohen, MD, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency to complete this book. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

From Booklist:

Palliative care and end-of-life specialist Cohen makes a valiant effort to be evenhanded on the end-of-life debate, it is apparent (from the title alone) on which side of the question his sentiments rest. He does, however, command respect for cogent reportage amid the roiling emotions often roused by this hot-button topic. His account of the trials of two nurses accused of murdering a terminally ill patient in their care at times takes on the tenor of witch-hunt, in part because their accuser apparently declined face-to-face interviews with Cohen, perhaps because of his specialty. He did manage to interview the leader of an organization that opposes withholding medically aggressive treatment at the end of life and well communicates the group’s thoughts and fears regarding end-of-life decisions. What is clear, in the end, is that, at the hour when most terminally ill patients pass quietly into that good night, they most certainly lie squarely in the eye of a hurricane of controversy. A complex subject well presented, though not so as to change anyone’s mind. --Donna Chavez

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061721778
• ISBN 13: 9780061721779
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272