The Law of Life and Death deserves close attention from anyone trying to understand why lawyers have more influence than physicians on birth and death.Worst Case Bioethics
Elizabeth Price Foley takes us on an agile and insightful romp through the briar patch of state and federal laws governing medical practice at the beginning and end of life. American politics is mired in legal debates over the limits of life and death practices, including embryo research, abortion, transplantation, treatment termination, suicide, and, most recently, ‘death panels.’ The Law of Life and Death deserves close attention from anyone trying to understand why lawyers have more influence than physicians on birth and death.
Foley’s book is essentially a primer or textbook on these legal issues of life and death, suitable for ethicists interested in learning about the law and for lawyers interested in learning about ethics… Foley ably lays out the moral arguments and legal disputes, and persuasively criticizes poorly reasoned judicial opinions.
New Republic online - Eric Posner
Elizabeth Price Foley takes us on an agile and insightful romp through the briar patch of state and federal laws governing medical practice at the beginning and end of life. American politics is mired in legal debates over the limits of life and death practices, including embryo research, abortion, transplantation, treatment termination, suicide, and, most recently, 'death panels.' The Law of Life and Death deserves close attention from anyone trying to understand why lawyers have more influence than physicians on birth and death.
George J. Annas author of Worst Case Bioethics
Elizabeth Price Foley takes us on an agile and insightful romp through the briar patch of state and federal laws governing medical practice at the beginning and end of life. American politics is mired in legal debates over the limits of life and death practices, including embryo research, abortion, transplantation, treatment termination, suicide, and, most recently, 'death panels.' The Law of Life and Death deserves close attention from anyone trying to understand why lawyers have more influence than physicians on birth and death.
George J. Annas Author Of worst Case Bioethics
Foley's book is essentially a primer or textbook on these legal issues of life and death, suitable for ethicists interested in learning about the law and for lawyers interested in learning about ethics...Foley ably lays out the moral arguments and legal disputes, and persuasively criticizes poorly reasoned judicial opinions.
Foley (Florida Intl. Univ. Coll. of Law) presents a profoundly intelligent, distinctive, and disturbing book. In seven short chapters, she dissects the legality behind what makes a person alive or dead. The first chapter addresses such subjects as feticide, wrongful conception, the freezing of humans and body parts, and frozen embryos. The discussion of legal contortions that courts make to decide these cases segues nicely into the court's definition of death. The book devotes succeeding chapters to the Uniform Definition of Death Act, which defines the difference between being brain-dead while the body functions and being fully dead from cardiac arrest. As the author coolly points out, medical advances and the need for organ donations have expanded the legal definition of death to outweigh what constitutes being alive. VERDICT With extensive endnotes and a scholarly tone, this work will be appreciated by legislators, serious readers, and legal and medical professionals.—Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis
