Assisted death : a study in ethics and law / L.W. Sumner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sumner, L. W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Euthanasia--Law and legislation.

Euthanasia.

Assisted suicide--Law and legislation.

Assisted suicide.

Euthanasia--Moral and ethical aspects.

Assisted suicide--Moral and ethical aspects.

Suicide, Assisted--ethics.

Euthanasia--ethics.

Euthanasia--legislation & jurisprudence.

Suicide, Assisted--legislation & jurisprudence.

Medical Subjects:

Suicide, Assisted--ethics.

Euthanasia--ethics.

Euthanasia--legislation & jurisprudence.

Suicide, Assisted--legislation & jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

xii, 236 pages ; 25 cm

Other Title:

Study in ethics and law

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Summary:

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 with drawal of life-sustaining treatment, pain control through high-dose opioids, and terminal sedation, cannot be justified. In the course of the ethical argument many familiar themes are given careful and thorough treatment: conceptions of death, the badness of death, the wrongness of killing, informed consent and refusal, the ethics of suicide, cause of death, the double effect, the sanctity of life, the 'active/passive' distinction, advance directives, and nonvoluntary euthanasia. The legal discussion opens with a survey of some prominent prohibitionist and regulatory regimes and then outlines a model regulatory policy for assisted death. Sumner concludes by defending this policy against a wide range of common objections, including those which appeal to slippery slopes or the possibility of abuse, and by asking how the transition to a regulatory regime might be managed in three common law prohibitionist jurisdictions. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Prologue 1

1.1 Matters of Life and Death 2

1.2 Distinctions and Definitions 15

1.3 Ethics and Law 20

1.4 Last Words 21

Part I Ethics

2 Consent and Refusal 27

2.1 The Doctrine of Informed Consent 27

2.2 Refusal of Life-Sustaining Treatment 35

2.3 Treatment Refusal and Suicide 40

2.4 Last Words 46

3 Indirect Death 48

3.1 Relieving Suffering and Causing Death 48

3.2 The Doctrine of Double Effect 56

3.3 Last Words 71

4 Death by Request 73

4.1 Suicide and the Sanctity of Life 74

4.2 The Ethics of Assisted Death 84

4.3 The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing 91

4.4 Last Words 99

5 Deciding for Others 101

5.1 The Formerly Competent 102

5.2 The Never Competent 117

5.3 Last Words 126

Part II Law

6 The Legal Landscape 131

6.1 Prohibition 131

6.2 Regulation 149

6.3 Last Words 163

7 From Prohibition to Regulation 165

7.1 The Case for Law Reform 166

7.2 A Model Policy 169

7.3 The Slippery Slope 174

7.4 Protecting the Vulnerable 178

7.5 Q&A 189

7.6 Last Words 203

8 Epilogue

8.1 A Summary of the Argument 205

8.2 The Way Forward 209

8.3 Last Words 214.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-232) and index.

ISBN:

9780199607983

0199607982

OCLC:

713182487