From Kirkus Reviews:
Kevorkian, gadfly of the medical profession and inventor of the ``suicide machine,'' speaks his mind on the ethics of death. Its title notwithstanding, this is not primarily a discussion of euthanasia--or ``medicide,'' the author's term for euthanasia performed by professional medical personnel--but, rather, largely a defense of his position that death-row inmates should be given the option of execution by general anaesthesia, thus permitting use of their bodies for experimentation and harvesting of their organs. Since his days as a medical resident, Kevorkian has attempted to convince legislators, prison officials, and physicians of the value of this approach. However, the art of persuasion is not Kevorkian's forte; indeed, he seems unable to resist attacking and insulting those who disagree with him, referring to his medical colleagues as ``hypocritical oafs'' with a ``slipshod, knee-jerk'' approach to ethics. Those seeking a thoughtful discussion of euthanasia will not find it here, but Kevorkian does offer a revealing look at gruesome methods of execution. (Readers who have the stomach for it may be intrigued by his account of the many attempts to determine how long consciousness endures in severed heads.) Kevorkian concludes with a recounting of his development of the ``Mercitron'' (as he has named his suicide machine), his reasons for creating it, and his difficulties in promoting its use. A model bioethical code for medical exploitation of humans facing imminent and unavoidable death is included in the appendix. An angry doctor's rambling and repetitious harangue, certain to arouse the ire of the medical establishment. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Publishers Weekly:
Kevorkian gained notoriety last year when he performed the first publicly acknowledged "physician-assisted suicide" by helping Janet Adkins, a victim of Alzheimer's disease, take her own life. The method of death was the Mercitron, the "suicide machine" Kevorkian invented, which enables a person to self-administer a lethal injection. In this self-dramatizing, often strident manifesto he argues that "medicide," his term for doctor-assisted suicide, is an ethical option that should be extended not only to the infirm or terminally ill, but also to inmates on death row. Condemned prisoners, he maintains, should, if they choose, be executed via general anesthesia, with the option of donating organs or having their intact bodies used for medical experimentation. Kevorkian's contention that the existence of his machine renders moral questions about euthanasia obsolete is simplistic. His book is likely to stir a hornet's nest of controversy. Photos. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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