Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The Policy and Practice of Mercy Killing (International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine)


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This book is a must for anyone who wishes to understand the pitfalls of policy-making where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are concerned. The book will be most useful in academic forums, and it will appeal to legislatures and judges who take the decisions and make the judgments necessary to protect the fabric of society in the face of technological medicine. In addition, this book is of relevance to medical doctors, ethicists, lawyers working in the field of medical law and ethics, and sociologists who are interested in end-of-life issues and social justice.Euthanasia in the Netherlands:
- addresses an issue that is of growing concern in North America and Europe;
- offers an interdisciplinary, compelling study in medicine, law, religion and ethics;
- covers a wide range of theoretical and practical issues concerning the end of life;
- considers the philosophical difficulties inherent in the concepts of medical ethics;
- is not confined strictly to the philosophical realm;
- is based on interviews conducted in hospitals, research centers and universities in the
Netherlands
- will contribute to the ongoing debate about the intricate questions of medical ethics;
- deals with issues that bring scholars and students, politicians, sociologists, jurist and lawyers together.
Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The Policy and Practice of Mercy Killing (International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine) Review
Writing a book on the Dutch experience with euthanasia is not an easy matter. Several reasons can explain the difficulty. First of all the ethics of the present palliative and terminal care has not been spelled out in detail until recent years. The difficulties every physician meets more than once in his career when confronted with a sincere wish of the patient to die in a humane way in a situation of unbearable suffering, are still puzzling for moral and legal thinking. Secondly, our ways of legal and public thinking are still not adapted to the situation in which death is a part of life, not so much as a natural fact but as a process that can be controlled. The goals of medicine to uphold human dignity and to alleviate suffering are at stake in this process. The Dutch policy to aim at a system of both legal clarity and control is perhaps at this moment the most articulated answer to the difficulties, but will almost certainly not be the last word in the issues of death and dying.Rafi Cohen-Almagor has contributed much to the ongoing discussions by interviewing all the prominent legal, moral, political and medical people involved in the development of the Dutch legal ruling. His analysis of the interviews is based on clear, lucid thinking and argument. Unlike some others he tries to stay with the facts without entangling them with moral or political prejudice. Instead he tries to develop a view according to best standards of academic thinking. In the end he gives his own conclusion based on his experiences. One does not need to subscribe them in order to appreciate the work Prof. Cohen-Almagor has done. This book will certainly be helpful in every discussion on the legal and moral principles of assistance in dying, in traditions of legal philosophy such as the schools of Dworkin, Rawls and Kelsen. It can help physicians, nurses and others engaged in palliative care to sharpen their views in the ethics of palliative care as well in the forms of public and legal control that are needed in the burdensome but rewarding work of assistance in dying.
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