Troubled voices

As one of America's best-known interpreters of philosophy, ethics, and medicine, Richard Zaner offers a hands-on, daily-rounds visit to real problems and real people struggling with painfully real medical dilemmas. Honest, forthright, and beautifully written, Troubled Voices introduces the reader to the human side of medical issues usually viewed from afar in the cold abstract of the daily news - euthanasia, genetic testing, renal dialysis, abortion, experimental procedures - and movingly reveals the people and personalities who must agonize over those decisions, preparing all of us for the time when we may need to face them as well. Guided by compassion, humor, and, above all, a willingness to listen, Richard Zaner moves among patients and their families, as well as doctors and nurses and other health-care providers, to help illuminate potential choices that no one should have to make. A gifted storyteller, Zaner gives faces and names to "cases" and demonstrates that somewhere behind the hospitals, technology, and medical decisions are individuals - sometimes raging, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes hopeful, and always fully human.