Synopses & Reviews
There is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide says the U.S. Supreme Court. Most states have laws against it, but states can also allow it, as Oregon has done; others are considering legalization. Still very little guidance has been offered about its practice.
Assisted Suicide: Finding Common Ground fills that void. A diverse group of experts--some for, some against--provide a framework for thinking about what assisted suicide, particularly physician-assisted suicide, is and how its legalized practice might be guided. The book does not take a position on the continuing debate about the morality or wisdom of legalizing assisted suicide. But physician-assisted suicide is now taking place, and the more pressing concerns are those pertaining to its implementation.
Editors Lois Snyder and Art Caplan attempt to find common ground on those real-world concerns. Among the questions asked and answered are: What is assisted suicide? Is physician-assisted suicide different from refusal of treatment? Are there alternatives to assisted suicide? How useful are currently available guidelines for physician-assisted suicide? Who should have access to what? Does assisted suicide necessarily mean physician-assisted suicide? Can the practice be effectively and meaningfully regulated? How should physicians respond to requests for assisted suicide?
Assisted suicide is one of the most ethically challenging issues in medicine and bioethics, defining who we are and want to be as individuals and as a society. This book takes a hard look at alternatives to the practice, the implications for the patient-physician relationship, who should write guidelines, and how to regulate physician-assisted suicide and establish safeguards so that it is voluntary and an option of last resort.
About the Author
Lois Snyder is on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for Bioethics and directs the Center for Ethics and Professionalism at the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine. She is a frequent author and speaker on bioethics, health-care policy, and medical-legal issues.
Arthur L. Caplan is Director for The Center for Bioethics at The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. He is the author or editor of 23 books and more than 500 articles and reviews in journals of medicine, philosophy, biology and public policy.
Table of Contents
Preliminary Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Assisted Suicide, Finding Common Ground
Lois Snyder, JD and Arthur Caplan, PhD
2. Physician-Assisted Suicide and Changes in Care of the Dying: The Oregon Perspective
Katrina Hedberg, MD, MPH and Susan Tolle, MD
3. Assisted Suicide and Refusal of Treatment: Valid Distinction or Distinction Without a Difference?
Franklin Miller, PhD, Joseph Fins, MD and Lois Snyder, JD
4. The Role of Guidelines in the Practice of Physician-Assisted Suicide
Arthur Caplan, PhD, Lois Snyder, JD and Kathy Faber-Langendoen, MD
5. Ought Assisted Suicide be only Physician Assisted?
Kathy Faber-Langendoen, MD and Jason Karlawish, MD
6. Can Assisted Suicide be Regulated?
David Orentlicher, MD, JD and Lois Snyder
7. Palliative Treatments of Last Resort: Choosing the Least Harmful Alternative
Timothy Quill, MD, Barbara Coombs Lee, PA, FNP, JD and Sally Nunn, RN
8. Responding to Requests for Physician-Assisted Suicide
James Tulsky, MD, Elliott Rosen, EdD and Reverend Ralph Ciampa, STM
9. Lessons from the Dying
Frank Davidoff, MD
10. Appendices
Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography
Peter Poon, JD, MA
Appendix B: The Oregon Death with Dignity Act
Appendix C: US Supreme Court Decision: Washington et al v.
Glucksberg et al.
Appendix D: US Supreme Court Decision: Vacco, Attorney General of New York et al v. Quill et al.