Dancing with Mister D
Subtitle: notes on life and death
By: Bert Keizer ; translated from the original Dutch by the author.
Edition: 1st ed. in the U.S.A.
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
Subjects: Terminally ill.; Death.; Medicine and psychology.; Hospice care.
Other titles: Dancing with Mr. D
Description: It is potentially the most divisive issue in health care: physician-assisted suicide. When is it permissible to put an end to a life? Across the United States, doctors, patients, families, and the courts are struggling with this wrenching question. While it may not provide an answer, this remarkable book sheds new light on the problem - and offers insights to those wrestling with this dilemma.

Bert Keizer is a Dutch physician with a degree in philosophy, a probing mind resistant to cant, and a manner both sardonic and compassionate. This book is a memoir of his years at a Dutch nursing home for the terminally ill - a place that requires all his resources of humanity and will, and where gallows humor is a necessity. As euthanasia is legal in Holland, Keizer is not infrequently called upon to assist in a patient's suicide.

His often surprising reflections on his role are punctuated by the moving stories of his patients' lives, his own thoughts on the absurdities and paradoxes of his profession, and the blend of cynicism and complacent conventional wisdom he hears from his colleagues.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.