HERBERT HENDIN, M.D.

Seduced by Death

Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide
Revised and Updated Edition

A psychiatrist and world-famous authority on suicide offers a persuasive argument against legalizing assisted suicide in the United States.

Few issues set off such impassioned debate as euthanasia and assisted suicide, but until now, no one has shown what their practice means in the actual experience of patients, doctors, and families.

Herbert Hendin has studied such experience in the United States and also in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are accepted. Using interviews with leading medical and legal architects of Dutch practices, and evaluating actual cases, Dr. Hendin addresses the difficult questions: Who actually makes the decision that a patient will die? How do the needs and character of family, friends, and doctors affect the choice? Throughout the book and in his conclusion, Dr. Hendin shows what we can do to find better options for those facing the final phase of life.

  • "A powerful contribution to this debate."--Charles E. Rosenberg, New York Times Book Review
  • "Closely reasoned and exhaustively researched. . . . Hendin's objections . . . carry a bone-chilling conviction."--Washington Post Book World
  • "[An] important and alarming report." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Herbert Hendin, M.D., executive director of the American Suicide Foundation, is professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College and author of several books, including Suicide in America, also in Norton paperback.
Seduced by Death book jacket


1998 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-31791-9 / 304 pages / PSYCHOLOGY
Norton Home
Trade Home
Online Ordering
View Your Shopping Cart