Purchase
THE LIFE OR DEATH COMMITTEE
By: Jillian Medoff
Harper
January 2027
On Sale: January 19, 2027
336 pages
ISBN: 0063509709
EAN: 9780063509702
Kindle: B0GYZ6GJWD
Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook
Add to Wish List
Historical
Could you decide who lives and who dies? Bestselling author Jillian Medoff explores the human consequences of impossible choices in a gripping novel inspired by a true story from the 1960s that raised moral dilemmas still echoing today. In the summer of 1961, seven Seattle citizens—a minister, a surgeon, a lawyer, a labor leader, a housewife, a banker, and a state government official—came together in an act of public service. Privately called the “Life-or-Death Committee,” they decided who among hundreds of gravely ill people would gain access to dialysis, a new life-sustaining treatment for kidney disease, and who would be denied. A forerunner of modern bioethics, the committee forced ordinary individuals to confront extraordinary moral questions. Inspired by controversial, real-life events, The Life or Death Committee is a sweeping and powerful novel that traces the intersecting stories of the seven volunteers and those drawn into their orbit. As each navigates the complexities of their own circumstances, they reckon with questions of fairness, responsibility, what it means to be a good person, and who has the right to decide—questions that remain as urgent and thought-provoking today as they were then.
| 
© 2003-2026