The Rights of Patients: The Basic ACLU Guide to Patient Rights
Second edition. George J. Annas. 328 pages. Clifton, New Jersey: The Humana Press, Inc.; 1992. $27.50.
A detailed guide to patients' rights in relation to emergency medicine, admission and discharge, informed consent, surgery, pregnancy, birth, experimentation and research, medical records, privacy and confidentiality, dying and death, organ donation, autopsy, and malpractice. Most of the text is structured with typical questions followed by the author's answer, analysis, and documentation. It opens with a survey of the patient's rights movement. The appendixes include a list of additional sources, a patient bill-of-rights act, a sample living will, a durable power-of-attorney document, and advice on how to use law and medical libraries. Written for the public, but clearly merits the attention of physicians who are other than well informed on these questions.
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