Sharon R. Kaufman je predsedníčkou oddelenia antropológie, histórie a sociálnej medicíny na Kalifornskej univerzite v San Franciscu. Je autorkou knihy „…A čas zomrieť: Ako americké nemocnice formujú koniec života“. Jej dielo skúma, ako inštitúcie a spoločenské normy ovplyvňujú naše prežívanie a chápanie umierania a smrti.
Sharon R. Kaufman examines the quandary of patients, families and doctors not knowing the point where enough medical treatment becomes too much treatment. A hidden chain of drivers among science, industry, new technology, and insurance spur this quandary, serving to obscure the ability to identify the difference between extraordinary and ordinary medicine.
A penetrating examination of how most Americans die today--how the patients and their families' conflicting desires about a good death collide with the politics and routines of American hospitals.