Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide

by Gerald Dworkin , R. G. Frey , Sissela Bok

• ISBN13: 9780521582469
• ISBN10: 0521582466
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The moral issues involved in doctors assisting patients to die with dignity are of absolutely central concern to the medical profession, ethicists, and the public at large. The debate is fueled by cases that extend way beyond passive euthanasia to the active consideration of killing by physicians. The need for a sophisticated but lucid exposition of the two sides of the argument is now urgent. This book supplies that need. Two prominent philosophers, Gerald Dworkin and R. G. Frey argue that in certain circumstances it is morally and should be legally permissible for physicians to provide the knowledge and means by which patients can take their lives. One of the best-known ethicists in the US (author of Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private) Sissela Bok argues that the legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide would entail grave risks and would in no way deal adequately with the needs of those at the end of their lives, least of all in societies without health insurance available to all. All the moral and factual issues relevant to this controversy are explored. The book will thus enable readers to begin to decide for themselves how to confront a decision that we are all likely to face at some point in our lives.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Introduction	ix
Part One	3	(80)
Gerald Dworkin
R.G. Frey
Introduction	3	(3)
1 The Nature of Medicine	6	(11)
Professing Ethically	12	(1)
The Limits of Medicine	13	(4)
2 Distinctions in Death	17	(26)
3 The Fear of a Slippery Slope	43	(21)
4 Public Policy and Physician-Assisted Suicide	64	(19)
Part Two	83
Sissela Bok
5 Choosing Death and Taking Life	83	(10)
Individual Control at the End of Life	84	(1)
Two Debates	85	(3)
Three Main Categories of Contemporary Views	88	(2)
A Reexamination	90	(3)
6 Suicide	93	(14)
The Freedom to Choose Death	94	(3)
Christianity and the Prohibition of Suicide	97	(3)
Arguments Invoking the Law of Nature	100	(1)
Longing for Easeful Death	101	(6)
7 Euthanasia	107	(21)
Autonomy and Mercy	110	(2)
Societal Risks and Slippery Slopes	112	(6)
Neglect and Maltreatment of the Dying	118	(4)
Euthanasia in the Netherlands and Beyond	122	(6)
8 Physician-Assisted Suicide	128
Assistance	129	(4)
The Role of Physicians	133	(3)
A Cry for Help?	136	(1)
Treatment	137