Ethical questions in medicine have become common topics of discussion during the past twenty years. Bitter disputes have arisen regarding abortion, suicide, human experimentation, as well as the management of the dying patient and the severely disabled newborn. These issues are loaded with such emotion that it is sometimes difficult to look at them in a rational manner.
Noted neurosurgeon and author Milton D. Heifetz has made the tough decisions in tragic, often anguishing situations. As a member of hospital ethics committees for many years, Dr. Heifetz found that discussions of complex...