书名：Knocking on Heaven's Door : The Path to a Better Way of Death敲响天堂之门
作者：Katy Butler
出版社名称：Scribner
出版时间：2014

语种：英语
ISBN：9781451641981
商品尺寸：14.0 x 2.5 x 21.3 cm
包装：平装
页数：352（以实物为准）

"Shimmer[s] with grace, lucid intelligence, and solace." -- Lindsey Crittenden ― Spirituality and Health Magazine

"[An] unflinching look at America's tendency to overtreat [that] makes a strong case for the 'slow medicine' movement, which recognizes that 'dying can be postponed, but aging cannot be cured.'" -- Zaineb Mohammed ― Mother Jones

"[A] deeply felt book...[Butler] is both thoughtful and passionate about the hard questions she raises — questions that most of us will at some point have to consider. Given our rapidly aging population, the timing of this tough and important book could not be better." -- Laurie Hertzel ― Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Butler argues persuasively for a major cultural shift in how we understand death and dying, medicine and healing. At the same time, she lays her heart bare, making this much more than ideological diatribe. Readers…should be sure to pick up this book. It is one we will be talking about for years to come.” -- Kelly Blewett ― BookPage

"A thoroughly researched and compelling mix of personal narrative and hard-nosed reporting that captures just how flawed care at the end of life has become." (Abraham Verghese, T he New York Times Book Review).

This groundbreaking blend of memoir and investigative reporting--hailed as "Notable Book of the Year" by The New York Times--ponders the "Good Death" and the forces that stand in its way.

Katy Butler was living thousands of miles away when her old but seemingly vigorous father suffered a crippling stroke. She flew East and in time became her parents' part-time caregiver, thoroughly re-embroiled in the childhood family dynamics she thought she'd left behind.

Her father's natural suffering was bad enough.  But in time she saw it prolonged by an advanced medical device -- a pacemaker -- that kept his heart going while doing nothing to prevent his slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he said, "I'm living too long," Katy and her mother faced wrenching moral questions, faced by millions of America's 28 million caregivers. Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, "Let my loved one go?"

After doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, Butler set out to understand how we had transformed dying from a natural process to a technological flail.  Her quest had barely begun when her mother, faced with her own grave illness, rebelled against her doctors and met death head-on.

Part memoir, part medical history, and part spiritual guide, Knocking on Heaven's Door is a map through the labyrinth of a broken medical system. Its provocative thesis is  that technological medicine, obsessed with maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. It also chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a movement bent on reclaiming the "Good Deaths" our ancestors prized. In families, hospitals, and the public sphere, this visionary memoir is inspiring passionate conversations about lighting the path to a better way of death.

Katy Butler’s articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Science Writing, and The Best American Essays. A finalist for a National Magazine Award, she lives in Northern California. She is the author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door and The Art of Dying Well.