Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-187) and indexes.
Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Modern end-of-life issues: an overview -- Chapter 2. Ethical and legal issues in end-of-life decisions -- Chapter 3. The wish to die: decisions that do not prolong and may hasten the dying process -- Chapter 4. The wish to die: assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia -- Chapter 5. The wish to prolong life -- Chapter 6. Alternatives in care at the end of life -- Chapter 7. The psychologist's role in end-of-life care -- Chapter 8. Concluding thoughts on suffering, dying, and choice.
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"Life and Death Decisions: Psychological and Ethical Considerations in End-of-Life Care offers mental health practioners invaluable information about the choices that people must make regarding how they will die, or how they will resist dying, and the ethical issues involved in making those choices." "Offering a presentation of the major moral, value-based, and ethical principles that guide end-of-life decision making, including autonomy, beneficence, mercy, and justice, Phillip M. Kleespies also reviews the crucial elements of informed consent, competence, and other issues that guide the American legal system's stance on this controversial debate. Life and Death Decisions articulates the role and functions that mental health practitioners - particularly psychologists - can fulfill as members of end-of-life interdisciplinary terms to help individuals interact more fully with their loved ones and make real decisions on a path toward increasing the probability of death with dignity."--Jacket.