<p>"Ball's arguments are concise, compelling, and backed with considerable case law. This volume is highly recommended for upper-level undergraduates and above in law, philosophy, and the medical humanities interested in the 'right to die' debates. Summing up: Highly recommended." —Choice<br><br><br>Over the<br>past hundred years, average life expectancy in America has nearly doubled, due<br>largely to scientific and medical advances, but also as a consequence of safer<br>working conditions, a heightened awareness of the importance of diet and<br>health, and other factors. Yet while longevity is celebrated as an achievement<br>in modern civilization, the longer people live, the more likely they are to<br>succumb to chronic, terminal illnesses. In 1900, the average life expectancy<br>was 47 years, with a majority of American deaths attributed to influenza, tuberculosis,<br>pneumonia, or other diseases. In 2000, the average life expectancy was nearly<br>80 years, and for too many people, these long lifespans included cancer, heart<br>failure, Lou Gehrig’s disease, AIDS, or other fatal illnesses, and with them,<br>came debilitating pain and the loss of a once-full and often independent<br>lifestyle. In this compelling and provocative book, noted legal scholar Howard<br>Ball poses the pressing question: is it appropriate, legally and ethically, for<br>a competent individual to have the liberty to decide how and when to die when<br>faced with a terminal illness?<br><br>At Liberty to Die charts how, the right<br>of a competent, terminally ill person to die on his or her own terms with the<br>help of a doctor has come deeply embroiled in debates about the relationship<br>between religion, civil liberties, politics, and law in American life.<br>Exploring both the legal rulings and the media frenzies that accompanied the<br>Terry Schiavo case and others like it, Howard Ball contends that despite raging<br>battles in all the states where right to die legislation has been proposed, the<br>opposition to the right to die is intractable in its stance. Combining<br>constitutional analysis, legal history, and current events, Ball surveys the<br>constitutional arguments that have driven the right to die debate.</p>
