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The Mask of Euthanasia
I
Book reviews
The Mask of Euthanasia. Curtin, Leah. Nurses Concerned for Life, Inc, Cincinnati, 1975, 53 pp. If you have not agonized over such decisions as when to cease life-sustaining efforts, the chances of your becoming involved are mounting. In this booklet the nurse-author points out that “the increasing power of technology to control human destiny is no longer a theoretical issue.” Medical moral problems are front page news and nurses must be aware of the forces working against the pledge to preserve life. Even the term euthanasia, generally defined as mercy killing, is being modified to “death with dignity” or “the institution of therapy that is hoped would hasten death.” Conflict occurs over the care of the mentally retarded, mentally ill, deformed persons, and the elderly. What must first be resolved is what is “life” and what is a “meaningful life.” In defining life it is possible “to read human beings out of the human race.” By this “dehumanization, violence can be explained, justified, and propagated.” The official journal of the California Medical Association predicts “that the new ethic of relative rather than absolute value on such things as human lives will prevail as man exercises even more certain and effective control over his numbers so as to achieve his desired quality of life and living.” The author poses such thought-provoking questions as, How long should life be preserved when there is no redeeming social value? If a parent does not have the right to withhold education for his child, does he have the right to produce the uneducatable? Is the cost of providing care to a child with meningomyelocele appropriate in view of our society’s full range of needs for medical care? Do we project rejection of the patient
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because of our own feelings about suffering and dying? The appendix includes the introduced or proposed bills in the Congress and legislatures in Washington, DC, Florida, and Idaho. The author feels that if euthanasia is considered the answer to overpopulation and personal misery, there is no doubt it will be widely practiced in this country within a decade. The unappealing paper cover with its stencil-like lettering may repel some readers because they suspect amateur treatment but the first few pages will dispel this feeling and capture the most serious thoughts. Sister M Thomasine Hardesty, OP, RN Cincinnati
Foundation of Surgical Nursing. Forrest, Jane. Edward Arnold Publishers, London, 1974, 90 pp, $3.95. Although a statement on the first page says . . our first consideration . . . is the man, woman, or child admitted for treatment,” further reading does not substantiate this assertion. Statements such as “The extent of the necessary investigations may be considerably varied; a fact which adds further interest to surgical nursing” and “The answer to this question will lead you along an interesting path of research” made this reviewer “wonder” whether surgical nursing is for the satisfaction of the nurse rather than meeting the needs of the surgical patient. Most of the information is in the form of definitions rather than in terms of nursing care. For example, the chapter on wounds discusses six types of accidental wounds, ten complications of wounds and has one short paragraph about the role of the nurse in caring for or preventing complications of wounds. ‘I.
AORN Journal, April 1976, V o l 2 3 , No 5
Book reviews
The Mask of Euthanasia. Curtin, Leah. Nurses Concerned for Life, Inc, Cincinnati, 1975, 53 pp. If you have not agonized over such decisions as when to cease life-sustaining efforts, the chances of your becoming involved are mounting. In this booklet the nurse-author points out that “the increasing power of technology to control human destiny is no longer a theoretical issue.” Medical moral problems are front page news and nurses must be aware of the forces working against the pledge to preserve life. Even the term euthanasia, generally defined as mercy killing, is being modified to “death with dignity” or “the institution of therapy that is hoped would hasten death.” Conflict occurs over the care of the mentally retarded, mentally ill, deformed persons, and the elderly. What must first be resolved is what is “life” and what is a “meaningful life.” In defining life it is possible “to read human beings out of the human race.” By this “dehumanization, violence can be explained, justified, and propagated.” The official journal of the California Medical Association predicts “that the new ethic of relative rather than absolute value on such things as human lives will prevail as man exercises even more certain and effective control over his numbers so as to achieve his desired quality of life and living.” The author poses such thought-provoking questions as, How long should life be preserved when there is no redeeming social value? If a parent does not have the right to withhold education for his child, does he have the right to produce the uneducatable? Is the cost of providing care to a child with meningomyelocele appropriate in view of our society’s full range of needs for medical care? Do we project rejection of the patient
916
because of our own feelings about suffering and dying? The appendix includes the introduced or proposed bills in the Congress and legislatures in Washington, DC, Florida, and Idaho. The author feels that if euthanasia is considered the answer to overpopulation and personal misery, there is no doubt it will be widely practiced in this country within a decade. The unappealing paper cover with its stencil-like lettering may repel some readers because they suspect amateur treatment but the first few pages will dispel this feeling and capture the most serious thoughts. Sister M Thomasine Hardesty, OP, RN Cincinnati
Foundation of Surgical Nursing. Forrest, Jane. Edward Arnold Publishers, London, 1974, 90 pp, $3.95. Although a statement on the first page says . . our first consideration . . . is the man, woman, or child admitted for treatment,” further reading does not substantiate this assertion. Statements such as “The extent of the necessary investigations may be considerably varied; a fact which adds further interest to surgical nursing” and “The answer to this question will lead you along an interesting path of research” made this reviewer “wonder” whether surgical nursing is for the satisfaction of the nurse rather than meeting the needs of the surgical patient. Most of the information is in the form of definitions rather than in terms of nursing care. For example, the chapter on wounds discusses six types of accidental wounds, ten complications of wounds and has one short paragraph about the role of the nurse in caring for or preventing complications of wounds. ‘I.
AORN Journal, April 1976, V o l 2 3 , No 5