Sick to Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore: Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life, by Joanne Lynn

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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.