The subtitle, “Spiritual and Medical Perspectives on Euthanasia and Mortality” says it all, and I expected a pretty glum read. I was pleasantly surprised and drawn in to the author’s arguments. He is a doctor and a theist, and he says right off the bat he’s opposed to euthanasia.

What startled, and eventually fascinated me, was that this opposition was not based on “it’s always wrong to take a life, even if you're terminally ill and the life is your own.” Rather, he writes of the lessons that can be learned as terminally ill people progress toward death, and the potential benefit of giving up control.

In the author’s view, giving up the control of, say, choosing the moment to down one’s stockpiled pills, puts control back into God’s, (or maybe just the nebulous great Whatever) and offers a great learning opportunity as patients “just wait and see” how and when death arrives. By the end of the book, I was pretty much in the court of this cigarette smoking, never too sure of himself, erudite doctor and writer. Well worth a careful read.

While I disagree with the conclusion of the author, I am glad that he agrees that spiritual/emotional suffering needs to be treated in the hospice patient

This is a thoughtful book on life and the end of life.

Not very good or well written.