More and more people, particularly the very elderly, are becoming interested in what is known as fasting to death - a method of ending their own lives in a self-determined way. What does this mean for relatives, doctors and nurses? Is fasting to death an unpleasant or a harmonious experience? This volume presents a variety of experiences from 21 case histories, supplemented with several discussion essays. The book is an important contribution to the current debate on terminal care and premature death and provides comprehensive information on the topic of fasting to death and voluntary renunciation of food and fluids for nurses, doctors, psychologists and others involved in the topic or asked for help as relatives. Important for everyone looking for more empirical knowledge about the topic.

Peter Kaufmann, a journalist and Chairman of the Management Board of the Palliacura Foundation, Zurich. Adjunct Prof. Manuel Trachsel, Head of the Department of Clinical Ethics at Basel University Hospital and the University Psychiatric Clinics of Basel, lecturer at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich. Christian Walther, retired neurobiologist, former volunteer outpatient hospice worker with the Order of St John in Marburg.