Deciding Who Lives: Fateful Choices in the Intensive-Care Nursery

by Renee R. Anspach

In this powerful and probing look at the reality of everyday choices in neonatal intensive care units, Renée Anspach explores the life-and-death dilemmas that have fueled national debate. Using case studies taken during sixteen months of extensive interviewing and observation, Anspach examines the roles of parents, doctors, nurses, and bioethicists in deciding whether critically ill newborns―be they premature, terminally ill, or severely malformed―should be saved by medical technology, or at least kept alive a little longer.

Genres: Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 1997

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I was born premature, this was a hard book for me to read. It was about babies that were born premature or with serious health problems and how health professionals had to make decisions as to whether or not to treat them and have them survive, but with disabilities. There were cases when they had to decide if treating the babies was causing them more suffering then was needed and if it would be kinder to let them die. As someone with a disability, it was alarming and disturbing how the doctors viewed babies that would be disabled as being less valuable than others there were parts of this book I found horrifying and other their parts that I just found sad.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book were the appendices, where Anspach discusses at length the methodological decisions she made throughout her research process. The transparency about these decisions strengthens her narrative authority, and it is fitting for a "sociology of knowledge approach." Additionally, she writes beautifully!