Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate

by Battin,Margaret P.

• ISBN13: 9780415920025
• ISBN10: 0415920027
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In its two recent cases about the hotly debated issue of physician assisted suicide, the United States Supreme Court concluded its majority opinion with the declaration that, "Americans are engaged in an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality, and practicality of physician-assisted suicide. . . . Our holding permits this debate to continue, as it should in a democratic society." A consequence of the Supreme Court's decision is to return discussion to the states, to deal with this heated issue either legislatively or by citizen referendum.Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debateis a cross-disciplinary collection of essays that advances such reflection and discussion during the politically turbulent period to come. The question of physician assisted suicide is not a simple matter. By offering views from a range of disciplines, including bioethics, law, medicine, and religion this book draws attention to the variety of questions to be addressed, for example: * Shouldassistance in suicide be confined to the terminally ill--or should any rational person be able to ask for a doctor's help in ending life? *Is physician-assisted suicide about avoiding suffering, or is it about control of the decision to end one's life? * Would doctors' killing patients betray their public trust, or would providing aid-in-dying allow patients greater security in knowing their doctors would help them as they wish at the end? * Is controlling one's own dying analogous to controlling one's fertility, a matter of particular importance to feminists? * Are people with disabilities especially susceptible to coercion--or is portraying them as weak and vulnerable another form of stereotyping? * What about Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish views of physician-assisted suicide? *What about rights and duties, both of physicians and patients?

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
Part One: Conceptual Issues	9	(64)
Meanings of Death	11	(17)
Patricia S. Mann
Physician-Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, and Intending Death	28	(35)
Frances M. Kamm
Physician-Assisted Suicide	63	(10)
Margaret P. Battin
Part Two: Considering Those at Risk	73	(90)
Assisted Suicide	75	(16)
Leslie Pickering Francis
Lessons for Physician-Assisted Suicide From the African-American Experience	91	(22)
Patricia A. King
Leslie E. Wolf
Why Suicide Is Like Contraception	113	(10)
Dena S. Davis
Disability and Life-Ending Decisions	123	(10)
Jerome E. Bickenbach
Protecting the Innocents From Physician-Assisted Suicide	133	(16)
Anita Silvers
Assisted Suicide, Terminal Illness, Severe Disability, and the Double Standard	149	(14)
Felicia Ackerman
Part Three: Considering the Practice of Medicine	163	(60)
Physicians, Assisted Suicide, and the Right to Live or Die	165	(12)
Rosamond Rhodes
Physician, Stay Thy Hand!	177	(5)
Bernard Baumrin
An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide	182	(21)
Bernard Gert
Charles M. Culver
K. Danner Clouser
Not in the House	203	(20)
Michael Teitelman
Part Four: Considering the Impact of Legalization	223	(100)
Physician-Assisted Suicide	225	(27)
Lance K. Stell
From Intention to Consent	252	(15)
Helga Kuhse
The Weakness of the Case for Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide	267	(12)
Don Marquis
Physician-Assisted Suicide	279	(22)
John D. Arras
The Supreme Court and Terminal Sedation	301	(11)
David Orentlicher
Would Physician-Assisted Suicide Save the Healthcare System Money?	312	(11)
Merrill Matthews, Jr.
Part Five: Considering Religious Perspectives	323	(50)
A Catholic Perspective on Physician-Assisted Suicide	324	(10)
John J. Paris
Michael P. Moreland
Christian Perspectives on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia	334	(13)
Cynthia B. Cohen
A Protestant Perspective on Ending Life	347	(15)
Allen Verhey
Jewish Deliberations on Suicide	362	(11)
Noam J. Zohar
Part Six: Appendices	373	(76)
A. Washington et al. v. Glucksberg et al.	377	(46)
Chief Justice Rehnquist
Justices O'Connor
Stevens
Souter
Ginsburg
Breyer
B. Vacco et al. v. Quill et al.	423	(8)
Chief Justice Rehnquist
Justices O'Connor
Stevens
Souter
Ginsburg
Breyer
C. The Philosophers' Brief	431	(12)
Ronald Dworkin
Thomas Nagel
Robert Nozick
John Rawls
Thomas Scanlon
Judith Jarvis Thomson
D. The Oregon Death With Dignity Act	443	(6)
Contributors	449	(6)
Index	455