Physician Assisted Suicide is a cross-disciplinary collection of essays from philosophers, physicians, theologians, social scientists, lawyers and economists. As the first book to consider the implications of the Supreme Court decisions in Washington v. Glucksburg and Vacco v. Quill concerning physician-assisted suicide from a variety of perspectives, this collection advances informed, reflective, vigorous public debate.

Ethical and legal issues concerning physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are very much on the public agenda in many jurisdictions. In this timely book L.W. Sumner addresses these issues within the wider context of palliative care for patients in the dying process. His ethical conclusion is that a bright line between assisted death and other widely accepted end-of-life practices, including the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, pain control through high-dose opioids, and terminal sedation, cannot be justified. In the course of the ethical argument many familiar themes are given careful and thorough treatment: conceptions of death, the badness of death, the wrongness of killing, informed consent and refusal, the ethics of suicide, cause of death, the double effect, the sanctity of life, the 'active/passive' distinction, advance directives, and nonvoluntary euthanasia. The legal discussion opens with a survey of some prominent prohibitionist and regulatory regimes and then outlines a model regulatory policy for assisted death. Sumner concludes by defending this policy against a wide range of common objections, including those which appeal to slippery slopes or the possibility of abuse, and by asking how the transition to a regulatory regime might be managed in three common law prohibitionist jurisdictions.

In this volume, a distinguished group of physicians, ethicists, lawyers, and activists come together to present the case for the legalization of physician-assisted dying, for terminally ill patients who voluntarily request it. To counter the arguments and assumptions of those opposed to legalization of assisted suicide, the contributors examine ethical arguments concerning self-determination and the relief of suffering; analyze empirical data from Oregon and the Netherlands; describe their personal experiences as physicians, family members, and patients; assess the legal and ethical responsibilities of the physician; and discuss the role of pain, depression, faith, and dignity in this decision. Together, the essays in this volume present strong arguments for the ethical acceptance and legal recognition of the practice of physician-assisted dying as a last resort -- not as an alternative to excellent palliative care but as an important possibility for patients who seek it.

For, against, and in-between--this book looks at the full range of arguments on assisted suicide and euthanasia that can be given from within the Christian tradition, with a special focus on Anglican heritage.

Review: "More than 100 scholars contributed to this carefully researched, well-organized, informative, and multi-disciplinary source on death studies. Volume 1, "The Presence of Death," examines the cultural, historical, and societal frameworks of death, such as the universal fear of death, spirituality and varioius religions, the legal definition of death, suicide, and capital punishment. Volume 2, "The Response to Death," covers such topics as rites and ceremonies, grief and bereavement, and legal matters after death."--"The Top 20 Reference Titles of the Year," American Libraries, May 2004.

“This is a book to be read by all involved in either side of this heated debate.” Dr C Fourcade, President of the French Association for Palliative Care, France "This powerful collection of essays brilliantly unpacks the legal, ethical and practical issues around the assisted dying debate.” Jonathan Herring, Professor of Law, University of Oxford, UK “This is an essential exploration of the complexities behind the sound bites.” Baroness Campbell of Surbiton DBE, UK “A much needed, timely compendium covering the main issues underlying and surrounding Assisted Dying.” Robert Twycross, Past Head, WHO Collaborative Centre for Palliative Care, Oxford, UK "Wherever your views lie on … assisted dying, you should read this book.” Dr Matt Morgan, Professor of Intensive Care, Cardiff University, UK, and Curtin University, Australia At a critical moment in the UK debate, this book provides up-to-date reflections from a broad variety of international experts on the profoundly important issues that surround changes in the law in any jurisdiction in connection with assisted dying and considers the realities that surround such changes. The Reality of Assisted Dying covers all the important issues in the debates about assisted suicide and euthanasia. This includes thoughts on the role of the law, discussion of important philosophical and ethical concepts, investigating the various issues that arise in the practice of medicine and palliative care, and scrutinizing concerns about definitions, coercion, consequences and safety. This book: Provides up-to-date data, evidence and reflections from professionals from countries where assisted dying has been legalized; Takes a fresh look at the arguments around legalization of assisted dying; Shows how a change in the law must take account of all those who will be affected, including families and those who will feel compelled to participate by assisting suicides or performing euthanasia; Shows the problems and dangers of embedding assisted dying within healthcare, and explores how alternative socio-legal procedures would improve legitimacy and monitoring for patients and their families. The book is relevant to a variety of intellectual disciplines and to political and social debates both in the UK and internationally, as well as being of interest to general readers and students studying the many relevant subjects, from medicine, to law, sociology, politics, philosophy and ethics. Julian C. Hughes has studied and been a professor of both philosophy and of old age psychiatry. He was an NHS consultant in old age psychiatry and served as deputy chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, UK. His most recent book was Dementia and Ethics Reconsidered, published by Open University Press. Ilora G. Finlay is a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, an honorary professor of palliative medicine at Cardiff University, UK, past President of the BMA and the Royal Society of Medicine. A founder director of Living and Dying Well, she co-authored Death by Appointment and led on legislation to encourage the availability of palliative care for all.

This book, as the first exploration of suicide in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS), illustrates the scarcity of suicide research in the discipline and argues that the leading cause of violent death worldwide is a multifaceted phenomenon that needs to be fully comprehended as a significant and often preventable form of world-wide violence. The author supplies a theoretical framework for assessing suicide as medical or instrumental, posits interdisciplinary complementarity and offers future lines of inquiry that challenge established notions of prevention. The book presents a PACS meta-theory termed ‘encounter theory’ and supplies a suicidal peacebuilding platform via relationship. This book questions why more PACS scholars aren’t turning their attention to suicide when more people die by suicide than ethnic, religious or ‘terroristic’ violence combined.

The Bill was published as HLB 4 session 2004-05 (ISBN 0108418839).

Twenty-four American specialists provide descriptions of techniques, critiques, and notes on resources and training on a variety of methods used in medical ethics. Individual chapters are devoted to each of 11 methods: philosophy, religion and theology, professional codes, legal methods, casuistry, history, qualitative, ethnographic, quantitative surveys, experimental methods, and economics and decision science. Discussion includes how these methods can relate to one another and how to assess the quality of scholarship in medical ethics in connection with such issues as physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and medical genetics. For scholars, teachers, editors and students in all disciplines contributing to the field. c. Book News Inc.