The Resource Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler
Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler
Resource Information
The item Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Farmington Public Library.This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
Resource Information
The item Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Farmington Public Library.
This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
- Summary
-
- "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"--
- "A blend of memoir and investigation of the choices we face when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of modern medicine"--
- Language
- eng
- Edition
- First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 322 pages
- Contents
-
- Pt. 1: The stroke. Along came a blackbird ; A year of grace ; Rites of passage
- Pt. 2: Fast medicine. The tyranny of hope ; Inventing lifesaving and transforming death ; My father's open heart
- Pt. 3: Ordeal. Not getting better ; Dharma sisters ; Broke-down palace ; White water
- Pt. 4: Rebellion. The sorcerer's apprentice ; The business of lifesaving ; Deactivation
- Pt. 5: Acceptance. The art of dying ; Afterward
- Pt. 6: Grace. Valerie makes up her mind ; Old plum tree bent and gnarled
- Pt. 7: Into the light. A better way of death ; A map through the labyrinth ; Notes for a new art of dying
- Isbn
- 9781451641974
- Label
- Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death
- Title
- Knocking on heaven's door
- Title remainder
- the path to a better way of death
- Statement of responsibility
- Katy Butler
- Language
- eng
- Summary
-
- "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"--
- "A blend of memoir and investigation of the choices we face when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of modern medicine"--
- Assigning source
-
- Provided by publisher
- Provided by publisher
- Cataloging source
- DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
- 1949-
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Butler, Katy
- Dewey number
- 616.02/9
- Index
- no index present
- LC call number
- R726.8
- LC item number
- .B884 2013
- Literary form
- non fiction
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Terminal care
- Terminal care
- Euthanasia
- Adult children of aging parents
- Label
- Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-313)
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Pt. 1: The stroke. Along came a blackbird ; A year of grace ; Rites of passage -- Pt. 2: Fast medicine. The tyranny of hope ; Inventing lifesaving and transforming death ; My father's open heart -- Pt. 3: Ordeal. Not getting better ; Dharma sisters ; Broke-down palace ; White water -- Pt. 4: Rebellion. The sorcerer's apprentice ; The business of lifesaving ; Deactivation -- Pt. 5: Acceptance. The art of dying ; Afterward -- Pt. 6: Grace. Valerie makes up her mind ; Old plum tree bent and gnarled -- Pt. 7: Into the light. A better way of death ; A map through the labyrinth ; Notes for a new art of dying
- Control code
- ocn843955794
- Dimensions
- 23 cm
- Edition
- First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 322 pages
- Isbn
- 9781451641974
- Isbn Type
- (hardback)
- Lccn
- 2013017659
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- System control number
- (OCoLC)843955794
- Label
- Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-313)
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Pt. 1: The stroke. Along came a blackbird ; A year of grace ; Rites of passage -- Pt. 2: Fast medicine. The tyranny of hope ; Inventing lifesaving and transforming death ; My father's open heart -- Pt. 3: Ordeal. Not getting better ; Dharma sisters ; Broke-down palace ; White water -- Pt. 4: Rebellion. The sorcerer's apprentice ; The business of lifesaving ; Deactivation -- Pt. 5: Acceptance. The art of dying ; Afterward -- Pt. 6: Grace. Valerie makes up her mind ; Old plum tree bent and gnarled -- Pt. 7: Into the light. A better way of death ; A map through the labyrinth ; Notes for a new art of dying
- Control code
- ocn843955794
- Dimensions
- 23 cm
- Edition
- First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 322 pages
- Isbn
- 9781451641974
- Isbn Type
- (hardback)
- Lccn
- 2013017659
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- System control number
- (OCoLC)843955794
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.infoway.org/portal/Knocking-on-heavens-door--the-path-to-a-better/wJK1XPdZD_M/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.infoway.org/portal/Knocking-on-heavens-door--the-path-to-a-better/wJK1XPdZD_M/">Knocking on heaven's door : the path to a better way of death, Katy Butler</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.infoway.org/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.infoway.org/">Farmington Public Library</a></span></span></span></span></div>
