The slow violence being inflicted on our environment--through everything
from carbon emissions to plastic pollution--also represents an impending
public health catastrophe. Yet standard health care practices are more
concerned with short-term outcomes than long-term sustainability. Every
resource used to deliver medical care, from IV tubes to antibiotics to
electricity, has a significant environmental impact. This raises an
urgent ethical dilemma: in striving to improve the health outcomes of
individual patients, are we damaging human health on a global scale?
In Dying Green, award-winning educator Christine Vatovec offers an
engaging study that asks us to consider the broader environmental
sustainability of health care. Through a comparative analysis of the
care provided to terminally ill patients in a conventional cancer ward,
a palliative care unit, and an acute-care hospice facility, she shows
how decisions made at a patient's bedside govern the environmental
footprint of the healthcare industry. Likewise, Dying Green offers
insights on the many opportunities that exist for reducing the
ecological impacts of medical practices in general, while also enhancing
care for the dying in particular. By envisioning a more sustainable
approach to care, this book offers a way forward that is better for both
patients and the planet.