Abstract
Controversy rages about physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia in the news media, the scholarly literature of medicine and bioethics, and the political arena of public referenda. In this chapter, after a brief description of cultural signs that favor moral experimentation in this area, we assess the relative merits of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and physician-performed euthanasia (PPE) from an ethical perspective. The conclusion is reached that there is no good reason, all things considered, for holding that PAS is morally superior to PPE. We recommend legalizing both PAS and PPE for competent patients suffering from terminal illnesses who autonomously choose to end their lives. We argue that in order to safeguard against abuses, legalization of voluntary euthanasia must be accompanied by mandatory prior committee review. The nature of committee review is described briefly and various objections to this policy are examined critically.
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Notes and References
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We owe this point to a conversation with Howard Brody. Brody elaborates on this in his article, Assisted death, op. cit.,p. 1386. 25T. E. Quill, op. cit. p. 694.
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Miller, F.G., Fletcher, J.C. (1994). Physician-Assisted Suicide and Active Euthanasia. In: Humber, J.M., Almeder, R.F., Kasting, G.A. (eds) Physician-Assisted Death. Biomedical Ethics Reviews. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-448-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-448-1_5
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