A guide for patients, family members, and care providers on the medical, ethical, legal, religious, and personal aspects of making end of life decisions.Half of all dying patients will be in moderate to severe pain in the last few days of life. A third or more of all dying patients will spend at least ten or more of their last days receiving invasive medical technology in the intensive care unit. Most of us probably have no clue what current law and ethics allow. Managing Death charts a positive course of action. The book's intent is both hopeful and practical: to offer information on how to make decisions about ending a life.Drawing on provocative case studies, personal interviews, and hundreds of documents, James Hoefler examines right-to-die issues in nontechnical language. The book opens with the controversial Pennsylvania court case of Joey Fiori who lived in PVS (permanent vegetative state) for 17 years.

The author continues by showing us the consensus on several end-of-life situations among medical organizations from the AMA to the President's Commission to the National Center for State Courts, from mainstream religious views such as the Catholic Church, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health care providers, to public opinion. Nearly all organizations and points of view come to dehydration as a simple and humane way to end one's life. James Hoefler provides a detailed assessment of dehydration as a means toward death and its advantages over assisted suicide at the end of life for the seriously ill. The book carefully describes various medical conditions, from PVS to severe dementia, and the common treatments, such as artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH), antibiotics, and hospice care. Finally, the reader is asked to consider further education and advanced directives such as preparing a living will.