Understanding assisted suicide : nine issues to consider / John B. Mitchell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mitchell, John B. (John Barry), 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Assisted suicide.

Euthanasia.

Terminal care--Moral and ethical aspects.

Terminal care.

Suicide, Assisted--ethics.

Medical Subjects:

Suicide, Assisted--ethics.

Genre:

Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

x, 221 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2007]

Summary:

The question of assisted suicide retains a powerful grip on our minds and our imaginations as one of the most emotionally charged and controversial topics of our time. It is the border beyond which most of us fear to tread. Even so, the issue isn't going away soon: as the baby boomer generation ages, many of us will watch ourselves and our parents grow older, and wonder at the decisions that lie ahead.

Understanding Assisted Suicide provides both a fresh take on this important topic and the context for intelligent participation in the discussion. Uniquely, John Mitchell frames the issue using his own experience of watching both his parents die, which led him to ask fundamental questions about death, dying, religion, and the role of medicine and technology in alleviating human suffering. Understanding Assisted Suicide offers a clear, navigable landscape over which those who seek their own answers can travel. The "nine-issue structure" allows both careful exploration of separate issues and a view of the full spectrum of ideas involved.

Contents:

Cultural arguments that assisted suicide is always wrong

Religious arguments for maintaining that suicide is morally "wrong"

Utilitarian arguments against suicide

The slippery slope phenomenon

My path turns: looking at autonomy and moral claims to the right to assisted suicide

Act utilitarianism as a moral basis for justifying assisted suicide

The moral claim justifying physician-assisted suicide with the combination of autonomy and mercy

Law and assisted suicide

The question of whether legislatures should or should not legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-210) and index.

ISBN:

9780472099962

0472099965

9780472069965

0472069969

OCLC:

85817907

Online:

Publisher description