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The modern art of dying : a history of euthanasia in the United States / Shai J. Lavi.

By: Lavi, Shai JoshuaMaterial type: TextTextSeries: JSTOR eBooksPublisher: Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, 2007Description: 1 online resource (x, 226 p.) : tablesISBN: 9781400826773 (electronic bk.); 1400826772 (electronic bk.)Subject(s): Euthanasia -- United States -- HistoryAdditional physical formats: Print version:: Modern art of dying.DDC classification: 179.7 LOC classification: R726 | .L379 2005Online resources: Click here to view this ebook. Summary: How we die reveals much about how we live. In this provocative book, Shai Lavi traces the history of euthanasia in the United States to show how changing attitudes toward death reflect new and troubling ways of experiencing pain, hope, and freedom. Lavi begins with the historical meaning of euthanasia as signifying an "easeful death." Over time, he shows, the term came to mean a death blessed by the grace of God, and later, medical hastening of death. Lavi illustrates these changes with compelling accounts of changes at the deathbed. He takes us from early nineteenth-century deathbeds governed.
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Electronic Book UT Tyler Online
Online 		R726 .L379 2005 (Browse shelf) https://ezproxy.uttyler.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt7sjn6 Available ocn438193593

Originally published: 2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

How we die reveals much about how we live. In this provocative book, Shai Lavi traces the history of euthanasia in the United States to show how changing attitudes toward death reflect new and troubling ways of experiencing pain, hope, and freedom. Lavi begins with the historical meaning of euthanasia as signifying an "easeful death." Over time, he shows, the term came to mean a death blessed by the grace of God, and later, medical hastening of death. Lavi illustrates these changes with compelling accounts of changes at the deathbed. He takes us from early nineteenth-century deathbeds governed.

Description based on print version record.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Unlike most philosophical approaches to euthanasia, Lavi's compelling genealogical account focuses on the deathbed, beginning with the religious origins of the practice and ending with revealing insights about the present situation. Beginning with the original meaning of the term euthanasia, "easeful death," Lavi (law and sociology, Tel Aviv Univ.) shows how the term and the practice have changed meaning over time from the religious "grace of god" to the modern "physician-assisted suicide" as medical and legal experts and policy makers increasingly appropriate the issue. In so doing, modern technique and expertise have come to dominate the debate. In attempts to control death, Lavi argues, people may have given control to experts and policy makers through the notion of technique. Accordingly, this may have changed fundamentally the way one experiences life and death as well as diminishing the autonomy and freedom of the individual. Lavi speculates about whether one can have individual autonomy and freedom, and how one might introduce them into the euthanasia debate. This well-written, well-researched, and important book offers both a persuasive genealogical methodology and perceptive insights about the present-day situation. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. R. Werner Hamilton College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Shai J. Lavi teaches law and sociology at Tel-Aviv University. His research lies at the crossroads of culture, philosophy, and law.

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