San Antonio College Library

Presents a collection of essays that examine euthanasia from a number of different perspectives.

Gathers medical and legal documents, opinions from various perspectives, and a timeline of events in the Terri Shiavo case to provide a resource for examining the moral and ethical issues surrounding end-of-life decisions.

Seven in ten Americans over the age of age of sixty who require medical decisions in the final days of their life lack the capacity to make them. For many of us, our biggest, life-and-death decisions - literally - will therefore be made by someone else. They will decide whether we live or die; between long life and quality of life; whether we receive heroic interventions in our final hours; and whether we die in a hospital or at home. They will determine...

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.

"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...

You have an incurable illness, you want to die, and you want help dying - what can you do? People who are terminally ill and live in Oregon or Washington can openly ask a doctor for help, but in the rest of country, where physician-assisted suicide is illegal, people who are suffering turn in secret to friends, family members, and even activist organizations. In this groundbreaking 90-minute film, FRONTLINE explores the shadow world of assisted suicide,...

The Good Death is the first full-scale examination of one of today's most complex issues: the profound change in the way Americans think about and confront death. Drawing on more than six years of firsthand research and reporting, noted journalist Marilyn Webb builds her account around intimate portraits of the dying themselves. She explains why some deaths become shockingly difficult--and needlessly painful--and how the struggles over end-of-life...

In light of the debate over death-with-dignity, takes the premises that suicide is a rational choice for some people; that the current medical, legal, and ethical standards do not account for that; and that mental health professionals need to develop guidelines for decision making about suicide. Discusses the history of attitudes, arguments for and.

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...