Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : Scribner, 2013.
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Physical Desc
322 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Status
Pueblo West Branch - ADULTNONFIC
616.029 B
1 available

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Published
New York : Scribner, 2013.
Format
Book
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Language
English

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-313).
Description
An exquisitely written, expertly reported memoir and expose; of modern medicine that leads the way to more humane, less invasive end-of-life care based on the author's acclaimed New York Times Magazine piece. This is the story of one daughter's struggle to allow her parents the peaceful, natural deaths they wanted and to investigate the larger forces in medicine that stood in the way. When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker that caused her eighty-four-year-old father's heart to outlive his brain, Katy Butler, an award-winning science writer, embarked on a quest to understand why modern medicine was depriving him of a humane, timely death. After his lingering death, Katy's mother, nearly broken by years of nonstop caregiving, defied her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and insisted on facing death the old-fashioned way: bravely, lucidly, and head on. Against this backdrop of familial love, wrenching moral choices, and redemption, Knocking on Heaven's Door celebrates the inventors of the 1950s who cobbled together lifesaving machines like the pacemaker and it exposes the tangled marriage of technology, medicine, and commerce that gave us a modern way of death: more painful, expensive, and prolonged than ever before. Caring for declining parents is a reality facing millions who may someday tell a doctor: Let my parent go. A riveting exploration of the forgotten art of dying, Knocking on Heaven's Door empowers readers to create new rites of passage to the Good Deaths our ancestors so prized. Like Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death and How We Die by Sherwin Nuland, it is sure to cause controversy and open minds--,Provided by publisher.
Description
A blend of memoir and investigation of the choices we face when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of modern medicine--,Provided by publisher.

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Butler, K. (2013). Knocking on heaven's door: the path to a better way of death (First Scribner hardcover edition.). Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Butler, Katy, 1949-. 2013. Knocking On Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Butler, Katy, 1949-. Knocking On Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death Scribner, 2013.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Butler, Katy. Knocking On Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death First Scribner hardcover edition., Scribner, 2013.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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