The Lazarus Case: Life-And-Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care

Dr. Lantos lends us a glimpse of the medical profession and the trauma of premature births in this eye opening and powerful account. He sympathetically describes his story, while also proding us with difficult and often unanswerable questions to debate for much after the book has ended. If interested in medicine, child rearing or the world of ethics doctors face daily, this book should be on your list.

This well-written, comprehensive, and deeply thoughtful book explores the issues surrounding the care of premature infants from a variety of perspectives. Lantos' own experience as a doctor clearly informs the entire book, but he also includes the voices of others, especially parents who have written about the experience of having a premature baby. By framing the whole book as an exploration of a single (fictional) medical case, he gives readers a sense of the complexity of ethical decisions that stem from a single incident. Lantos has succeeded in writing a book that speaks eloquently to non-medical readers without talking down to them. Recommended most highly.