Astute…. illuminating…. Gutmann and Moreno lucidly outline the differences between earlier eras in medicine, when a doctor’s 'implicit permission to mislead, if not to lie outright' was openly accepted, and contemporary medicine, where healthier food 'choice architecture' and mental health system reforms are just two examples of the radical shift in perception and patient self-empowerment. The authors are unafraid to address more disputable, 'slippery slope' issues, many of which remain targeted by polarized political systems.—Kirkus Reviews
Targeting a general audience, this title provides a clear and compassionate presentation of complicated topics and how important it is to confront them.—Library Journal
[Gutmann and Moreno] vividly explore the complexity of the ethical principles underlying scientific advances and emerging medical treatments.... Part cultural history, part philosophical enquiry, and part gentle polemic, this valuable survey should become prescribed reading for America’s healthcare practitioners.—Publishers Weekly
Well done.—Booklist
The age-old debate about health care—what we owe each other as we all become sick—has rarely been able to transcend the superficial and frustratingly binary arguments of the politics that has held a meaningful discussion hostage. This superb book is a refreshing departure.—Ken Burns, filmmaker
A remarkable, highly readable journey through the development of modern thinking about bioethics, from syphilis experiments on black men in Tuskegee, and Brittany Maynard’s desire to die rather than live with uncurable cancer, to wondrous medical advances that pose excruciating trade-offs.—Judy Woodruff, anchor of PBS NewsHour
Amy Gutmann and Jonathan Moreno’s groundbreaking Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die should be required reading for anyone with a heartbeat who wants to understand the ethical and practical contradictions of our cultural obsession with prolonging life at all costs.
—Andrea Mitchell, anchor of NBC News
A tour de force. Readable and understandable to lay audiences, sophisticated and comprehensive for all, fair-minded in approach but also taking positions, this book gives a thorough history, with important examples, of all the areas of research and action that raise serious ethical questions. Everybody will face some of the challenges raised in this book. And everyone would benefit immensely from reading it.—Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute