The Life or Death Committee

Who has the right to live? Who should decide?

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.

EARLY PRAISE

The Life or Death Committee is a deep dive into the relationship between power and empathy. To read this book is to imagine yourself at the committee table, with the ability to help only a small number of those in critical need. Scene after scene, the question resurfaces: What would you do? I loved this bold, complex, character-driven novel. – Patrick Ryan, NY Times bestselling author of Buckeye (Read with Jenna)

The Life or Death Committee is the story of impossible choices made by ordinary people. Jillian Medoff has built us a gorgeous historical treasure box of a book. Expansive and intricate all at once, this depiction of a rapidly changing healthcare system and the people at its center is a propulsive examination of what morality really means when you’re deciding the fate of a neighbor.  – Lily Brooks-Dalton, critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Light Pirate and Ruins (GMA Book Club)

Beautifully written and full of suspense, The Life or Death Committee tells a captivating, powerful, and deeply human story about the agonizing moral consequences of our decisions. Jillian Medoff has revealed a forgotten chapter of twentieth-century American culture with compassion and a masterful command of storytelling.  – Bruce Holsinger, bestselling author of Culpability (Oprah’s Book Club)