An easy-to-digest compendium of bioethical issues that provides plenty of food for thought.
How would you act when presented with medical cases that raise serious bioethical concerns?
That is the question Appel (Surrendering Appomattox, 2019, etc.) poses in a series of 79 short takes drawn from news headlines, medical literature, and his own background as a psychiatrist, professor of bioethics, and director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry at Mount Sinai. The author presents each scenario in a succinct paragraph, often using an amusing name for the fictitious doctor—Jekyll, Dolittle, Hawkeye Pierce—followed by a discussion that includes current laws, regulations, or policies, which, he is quick to point out, may be nonexistent or vary from state to state. Then it’s up to readers to ponder what to do. Do you tell the daughter of the father who needs a kidney transplant that not only is she not a match, but that she is not his biological daughter? Do you report to your professional society that your current patient says she slept with her former therapist? What about the corporate executive who has a brain tumor but who tells the world he is in top form when a merger is in the making? Appel notes that bioethical issues have only gotten more complex as technology accelerates—e.g., what to do with the frozen embryos of divorcing couples? End-of-life issues have gotten more complicated, as well. If nothing else, they are a reminder of the importance of establishing advance directives or living wills. Without that guidance, there can be a clash between relatives valuing the sanctity of life over those arguing for the quality of life. The result may be a quadriplegic patient permanently tied to a ventilator. Throughout, Appel’s scenario approach works well, as readers are challenged to weigh the morality of decisions in our increasingly complex medical world.
An easy-to-digest compendium of bioethical issues that provides plenty of food for thought.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61620-922-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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