Dying With Dignity

Providing a thorough, well-researched investigation of the socio-legal issues surrounding medically assisted death for the past century, this book traces the origins of the controversy and discusses the future of policymaking in this arena domestically and abroad. Should terminally ill adults be allowed to kill themselves with their physician's assistance? While a few American states—as well as Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg—have answered "yes," in the vast majority of the United States, assisted death remains illegal. This book provides a historical and comparative perspective that not only frames contemporary debates about assisted death and deepens readers' understanding of the issues at stake, but also enables realistic predictions for the likelihood of the future diffusion of legalization to more countries or states—the consequences of which are vast. Spanning a period from 1906 to the present day, Dying with Dignity: A Legal Approach to Assisted Death examines how and why pleas for legalization of "euthanasia" made at the beginning of the 20th century were transmuted into the physician-assisted suicide laws in existence today, in the United States as well as around the world. After an introductory section that discusses the phenomenon of "medicalization" of death, author Giza Lopes, PhD, covers the history of the legal development of "aid-in-dying" in the United States, focusing on case studies from the late 1900s to today, then addresses assisted death in select European nations. The concluding section discusses what the past legal developments and decisions could portend for the future of assisted death.

In this book the author makes a case for legalized physician-assisted dying. Using the latest data from Oregon and the Netherlands, he puts a new slant on perennial debate topics such as "slippery slopes," "the integrity of medicine," and "sanctity of life." This book provides an in-depth look at how we die in America today. It examines the shortcomings of our end-of-life system. You will learn about terminal torture in hospital ICUs and about the alternatives: hospice and palliative care. The author scrutinizes the good, the bad, and the ugly. He provides a critique of the practice of palliative sedation. The book makes a strong case that assisted dying complements hospice. By providing both, Oregon now has the best palliative-care system in America. This book, above all, may help you or someone you care about navigate this strange landscape we call "end of life." It can be an informed guide to "a good death" in the age of hospice and high-tech medical intervention.

Physician-Assisted Death is the eleventh volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews. We, the editors, are pleased with the response to the series over the years and, as a result, are happy to continue into a second decade with the same general purpose and zeal. As in the past, contributors to projected volumes have been asked to summarize the nature of the literature, the prevailing attitudes and arguments, and then to advance the discussion in some way by staking out and arguing forcefully for some basic position on the topic targeted for discussion. For the present volume on Physician-Assisted Death, we felt it wise to enlist the services of a guest editor, Dr. Gregg A. Kasting, a practicing physician with extensive clinical knowledge of the various problems and issues encountered in discussing physician assisted death. Dr. Kasting is also our student and just completing a graduate degree in philosophy with a specialty in biomedical ethics here at Georgia State University. Apart from a keen interest in the topic, Dr. Kasting has published good work in the area and has, in our opinion, done an excellent job in taking on the lion's share of editing this well-balanced and probing set of essays. We hope you will agree that this volume significantly advances the level of discussion on physician-assisted euthanasia. Incidentally, we wish to note that the essays in this volume were all finished and committed to press by January 1993.

Dying Right provides an overview of the Death With Dignity movement, a history of how and why Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide, and an analysis of the future of physician-assisted suicide. Engaging the question of how to balance a patient's sense about the right way to die, a physician's role as a healer, and the state's interest in preventing killing, Dying Right captures the ethical, legal, moral, and medical complexities involved in this ongoing debate.

Whether people have a right to control their own death has become a topic of increasing interest to everyone involved - governments that try to impose their will on individuals, advocates on both sides of the question, and those most directly affected, the terminally ill. This book, inspired by the Compassion in Dying Federation, looks at the issue personally, from the standpoint of the dying and those directly involved in the process. Editor Barbara Coombs Lee highlights stories of individuals and their graceful release into death that can happen when people are given a choice. But there are also powerful accounts by family members, friends, and religious advisers who respected and supported that choice - including those who opted for physician-assisted death. This publication coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Compassion in Dying Federation.

The explosion of literature on the once taboo topic of death and dying in the late 1970s had tended to pass the professional social worker by. Originally published in 1981, it was to fill this important gap that Towards Death with Dignity was written. Not since Kubler-Ross’s now classic On Death and Dying has a book in the field of terminal care been informed by so much first-hand experience, and so much case material, allowing the caregiver to learn from the dying person himself how best to help him towards a dignified death. Sylvia Poss’s sensitive elucidation of what the dying person must do for himself in order to master his terminal crisis was welcomed as a major contribution to psychosocial knowledge at the time. Having outlined the dying person’s side of the crisis, she turns to the perspective of those who hope to help him towards death – other patients, nurses, doctors, paramedical staff and social workers, chaplains, volunteers, employers, relatives and friends. Towards Death with Dignity focuses on three of social work’s major methods: social casework, community work and teaching. Not only does Sylvia Poss outline what may need to be done by the caregiver, but she also illustrates how; she further outlines how to prepare for social work in the terminal care field and suggests an effective method for teaching terminal care skills. Her book also provided, for the first time, a synthesis of other recent work in the field, to help social workers through what had become a plethora of specialist psychosocial and medical literature. Towards Death with Dignity was thus a useful, practical guide, both for laymen and for the many professionals involved in this aspect of the health care field. It will also be valuable for those who are involved personally in moving towards their own death, or are being called upon to be involved in some way in the death of a relative, neighbour or friend.

In December 2016, the CCA was asked by then Minister of Health Jane Philpott and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould to undertake independent reviews related to medical assistance in dying (MAID). Specifically, the CCA was tasked with examining three particularly complex types of requests for MAID that were identified for further review and study in the legislation passed by Parliament in 2016: requests by mature minors, advance requests, and requests where a mental disorder is the sole underlying medical condition. On December 12, 2018 the CCA released the three final reports of the Expert Panel, one on each type of request: The State of Knowledge on Medical Assistance in Dying for Mature Minors; The State of Knowledge on Advance Requests for Medical Assistance in Dying; and The State of Knowledge on Medical Assistance in Dying Where a Mental Disorder is the Sole Underlying Medical Condition.

“A remarkably nuanced, empathetic, and well-crafted work of journalism, [The Inevitable] explores what might be called the right-to-die underground, a world of people who wonder why a medical system that can do so much to try to extend their lives can do so little to help them end those lives in a peaceful and painless way.”—Brooke Jarvis, The New Yorker More states and countries are passing right-to-die laws that allow the sick and suffering to end their lives at pre-planned moments, with the help of physicians. But even where these laws exist, they leave many people behind. The Inevitable moves beyond margins of the law to the people who are meticulously planning their final hours—far from medical offices, legislative chambers, hospital ethics committees, and polite conversation. It also shines a light on the people who help them: loved ones and, sometimes, clandestine groups on the Internet that together form the “euthanasia underground.” Katie Engelhart, a veteran journalist, focuses on six people representing different aspects of the right to die debate. Two are doctors: a California physician who runs a boutique assisted death clinic and has written more lethal prescriptions than anyone else in the U.S.; an Australian named Philip Nitschke who lost his medical license for teaching people how to end their lives painlessly and peacefully at “DIY Death” workshops. The other four chapters belong to people who said they wanted to die because they were suffering unbearably—of old age, chronic illness, dementia, and mental anguish—and saw suicide as their only option. Spanning North America, Europe, and Australia, The Inevitable offers a deeply reported and fearless look at a morally tangled subject. It introduces readers to ordinary people who are fighting to find dignity and authenticity in the final hours of their lives.