Final Choices
Seeking The Good Death
By Michael Vitez

Published by Camino Books, Inc.
Publication date: February, 1998
ISBN: 0940159430 (soft cover)

Synopsis
Michael Vitez won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for his Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper series "Final Choices: Seeking the Good Death". Vitez then reworked the material into a short book form. Intended for a general audience, the book helps health care consumers examine tough choices in medical care, hospice alternatives, home care, assisted suicide, and related issues.

Vitez' goal is to help his readers examine their own ideas regarding death and make informed choices about care options. It tries to make death a less mysterious and frightening experience by giving people more sense of control over how and where they die.

Arthur Caplan of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania says of this book:

"Those who want to make dying better could not do better than to carefully listen to the voices of patients and families who have experienced dying as it now is in the American hospital. By meeting the people Mike Vitez writes about... little will happen to make death less of a mystery but much can be learned about how to solve the mystery of making dying more humane and dignified."

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Learning how and when to let go

2. Going home to die, with hospice care to help

3. Taking care of relatives at home: the burden

4. Deciding to die with a doctor's help

5. Finding more ways to stay independent longer

Epilogue

Appendix

Where to get information

Area hospice care

Living wills and medical powers of attorney

Organizations

Resource guides

Internet web sites