TY - JOUR T1 - Book review: THE DYING KEATS: A CASE FOR EUTHANASIA? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 942 LP - 942 DO - 10.3399/bjgp10X544212 VL - 60 IS - 581 AU - James Willis Y1 - 2010/12/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/60/581/942.abstract N2 - The Dying Keats: A Case for Euthanasia? Brian Livesley 2009 Matador 56 £9.99 9781848761711 Professor Livesley's long career in the NHS as an elderly care specialist of the utmost distinction and, on the evidence of this book, manifest human compassion, makes him a man whose views on the care of the dying must be listened to with the greatest respect. This short book, which is based on his 20th John Keats Memorial Lecture, also shows awesome scholarship as he recounts the life of the great but troubled poet and a quite wonderful depth of insight into his poetry.But there is a problem. Livesley states in his foreword that he hopes to inspire a debate. But what is the debate about? The story he tells is indeed shocking – Keats spending those last 100 days of his life, in Rome, in increasingly pitiful suffering, being denied the drugs that would have made him more comfortable by not only his companion Joseph Severn … ER -