Physician-assisted suicide and public policy

Philosophical Studies

Volumn 89, Issue 2-3, 1998, Pages 133-141

  Dworkin, Gerald ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745212526     PISSN: 00318116     EISSN: 15730883     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/a:1004283510282     Document Type: Article

References (8)

1. When Death is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context. The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, New York, NY, May 1994. All quotes are from this report unless otherwise noted.
2. This has not always been the case. It was quite common for many years for physicians and judges to treat such refusals as equivalent to suicide or homicide.
3. A recent study of the Dutch experience has attracted much attention, particularly on the part of those who fear the slippery-slope. P. J. van der Maas, J. J. M. van Delden, L. Pijenborg: Euthanasia and Other Medical Decisions Concerning the End of Life, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992. In an unpublished paper Helga Kuhse analyses the figures and shows that by far the largest number of non-consented to deaths were a result of decisions involving withdrawing or withholding of medical treatment or the use of drugs to treat pain and/or symptoms rather than active euthanasia. Helga Kuhse, Sanctity of Life, Voluntary Euthanasia and the Dutch Experience: some Implications for Public Policy.
4. Dan Brock was instrumental in clarifying my thoughts on this issue.
5. It should be noted that the right not to have compulsory intervention on one's body is not an absolute right in any case. We require compulsory vaccinations and compulsory donation of blood samples in criminal investigations.
6. T. E. Quill, "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making." New England Journal of Medicine 324 (1991) 691-94.
7. July, 1994.
8. This paper draws on material to appear in S. Bok, G. Dworkin, R. Frey Physicianassisted Suicide: For and Against. Cambridge University Press.