San Antonio College Library

A meditation on euthanasia, addressing issues of pain and death that are primarily medical in nature; discussing differing beliefs about the existence or nonexistence of the human soul; and examining the legal and social aspects of euthanasia.

Examines some fundamental issues realted to euthanasia and the practice of assisted suicide. It explains euthanasia in its various forms, provides information on the "right-to-die movement," and explores some alternatives to euthanasia.--

For many years Dr. Kevorkian was at the center of the red-hot debate over physician-assisted suicide. The inventor of the "suicide machine" stirred up both admiration and controversy. His "Deaths with Dignity" won him the accolades of the pro-choice movement. Other groups, like Operation Rescue, the AMA, the Hemlock Society, and especially the Michigan State Legislature, insisted that Kevorkian had gone too far. His much-publicized campaign to assist...

This work is a sequel to the author's 1994 volume The Least Worst Death. The last ten years have seen fast-moving developments in end-of-life issues, from the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands to furor over proposed restrictions of scheduled drugs used for causing death, and the development of "NuTech" methods of assistance in dying. This new collection covers a remarkably wide range of end-of-life topics, including...

William F. May, a leading expert on medical ethics, here explores two of today's most crucial tests of the medical covenant - active euthanasia and health care reform. May begins with an incisive introduction that delineates the covenantal, or relational, nature of the practice of medicine over against the merely contractual view - the quid pro quos of the commercial buying and selling of professional services. In the subsequent chapters, May follows...

Exposes the misconception that stopping life support merely allows patients to die from their medical conditions, and disputes the accuracy of determining death of hospitalized patients on the basis of a diagnosis of "brain death" prior to vital organ donation. Miller and Truog, in the context of reasonable plans to withdraw life support, argue that still-living patients are not harmed or wronged by organ donation prior to their death, provided that...

"In Assisted Suicide C.G. Prado and S.J. Taylor provide a comprehensive discussion of relevant moral and ethical concerns. As Prado and Taylor point out, legalization is not the central issue, since doctor-assisted suicide is already taking place regardless of its illegality. Instead, the debate concerns acknowledging and sanctioning a current (albeit limited) practice, removing the criminal penalties, and framing the discussion in terms of the truly...

"Does a competent person suffering from a terminal illness or enduring an otherwise burdensome existence, who considers his life no longer of value but is incapable of ending it, have a right to be helped to die? Should someone for whom further medical treatment would be futile be allowed to die regardless of expressing a preference to be given all possible treatment? These are some of the questions that are asked and answered in this wide-ranging...

"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...