Intensive Care: Medical Ethics and the Medical Profession

by Robert Zussman

In riveting case studies, Robert Zussman describes how medical decisions in ICUs are considered and reconsidered, made and remade, negotiated and renegotiated. He concentrates on the practice of medical ethics, on the ways in which right and wrong are interpreted and used in the ward—how definitions of right and wrong emerge from the social situations of patients, families, doctors, and nurses and from the workings of hospitals and the courts.

His book is a portrait of the way careful planning is undermined by the unpredictability of illness and the persistence of self-interest, by high principle and curious compromise.

260 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Samuel Brown]

A sociology of medicine classic that in most respects is still of interest if imperfect. There are occasional gaffes and misreadings, but overall he does a good job of giving a sense for what the practice of ICU medicine was like in the late 1980s. I like his emphasis on the complex relationships between what actually happens and what is believed to happen, and I think his observations about ICU triage are quite accurate.

[mwr]

A few nice incites, but not a books worth.