Sick to Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore: Reforming Health
Care for the Last Years of Life, by Joanne Lynn. Berkeley: University
of California Press and New York: Milbank Memorial Fund, 2004. 217 pp.
$24.95.
According to Joanne Lynn, the author of Sick to Death and Not
Going to Take It Anymore: Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of
Life, those of us spared an accidental or traumatic death will
experience one of three trajectories of health and decline toward the end
of our lives. People experiencing the first trajectory will remain active
and comfortable until only a few weeks prior to death, when a severely
debilitating decline will occur. Those experiencing the second will live
for years with relatively minor debilitations associated with chronic
illness, but these will be exacerbated at intervals over time, and death
will occur unexpectedly. Those experiencing the third
trajectory—nearly half of all Americans—will dwindle away
slowly, becoming increasingly incapacitated from frailty and/or
dementia over years or even decades.Readers
are invited to contact Greg S. Loeben in writing at Midwestern University,
Glendale Campus, Bioethics Program, 19555 N. 59th Ave., Glendale, AZ 85308
(gloebe@midwestern.edu) regarding books they would like to see reviewed or
books they are interested in reviewing.