The Life or Death Committee

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.