Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Any experience[, ideal, or concept], however trivial in its first appearance, is capable of assuming an indefinite richness of significance by extending its range of perceived connections. Normal communication with others is the readiest way of effecting this development, for it links up the net results of the experience of the group and even race with the immediate experience of an individual.
John DeweyOn the way
we passed a long row
of elms. She looked at them
awhile out of
the ambulance window and said,
What are all those
fuzzy-looking things out there?
Trees? Well, I'm tired
of them and rolled her head away
William Carlos WilliamsAnother book about end-of-life issues…how can this be? For more than thirty years, bioethics, medical ethics, clinical ethics (whatever you choose to call this field of concern) has been looking at end-of-life issues as paradigmatic of ethically challenging situations in medicine. For that long, at least, articles and books looking into the many aspects and challenges of end-of-life care have been produced. I cannot truly explain why I have added another text into this array.
And yet it is worth taking just a moment to note that there is always more to say about end-of-life care. We will all die. In fact, everyone who at the time of this writing is my age or older will be dead by the turn of the century.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- End-of-Life Care and Pragmatic Decision MakingA Bioethical Perspective, pp. ix - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009