Physician Assisted Suicide

Margaret P. Battin is Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics at the University of Utah. She is the author of numerous books, including, The Least Worst Death (1994). Rosamond Rhodes is Director of Bioethics Education and Associate Professor of Medical Education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, CUNY. Anita Silvers is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents Introduction I. Conceptual Issues Meanings of Death -- Patricia S. Mann Physician Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, and Indending Death -- Frances Kramm Physician Assisted Suicide: Safe, Legal, and Rare? -- Margaret P. Battin II. Considering the Risk Are the Elderly a Special Case? -- Leslie P. Francis African-Americans and Physician Assisted Suicide -- Patricia King Why Suicide is like Contraception: A Women-Centered View -- Dena S. Davis Protecting the Innocents from Physician Assisted Suicide -- Anita Silvers Disability Discrimination and the Duty to Protect Otherwise Vulnerable Groups Assisted Suicide, Terminal Illness Severe Disability and the Double Standard -- Felicia Ackerman III. Considering the Practice of Medicine Physicians, Assisted Suicide, and the Right to Live or Die -- Rosamond Rhodes Physician, Stand Thy Ground -- Bernard Baumrin An Alternative to Physician Assisted Suicide -- Bernard Gert, Charles Culver and K. Danner Clouser Not in the House: Arguments for a Policy of Excluding Physician Assisted Suicide from the Practice of Hospital Medicine IV. Considering the Impact of Legalization Physician Assisted Suicide: to Decriminalize or to Legalize, that it the Question -- Lance K. Stell From 'Intention' to 'Consent': Learning from Experience with Euthanasia -- Helga Kuhse The Weakness of the Case for Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide -- Don Marquis Physician Assisted Suicide: A Tragic View -- John Arras The Supreme Court and Legalization: An Ethically Inferior Alternative to Physician Assisted Suicide -- David Orentlicher Would Physician Assisted Suicide Save the Health Care System Money (Or, Is Jack Kevorkian Doing All of Us a Favor? -- Merrill Mathews, Jr. V. Considering Religious Perspectives A Catholic Perspective on Physician Assisted Suicide -- John Paris and Michael P. Moreland Christian Perspectives on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: The Anglican Tradition -- Cynthia B. Cohen A Protestant Perspective on Ending Life: Faithfulness in the Face of Death -- Allen Verhey Jewish Deliberations on Suicide: Exceptions, Toleration and Assistance -- Noam Zohar VI. Appendix The Supreme Court Decision delivered by Chief Justice Renquist Concurring Opinions by Justices Stevens, Souter, O'Connor, Ginsberg, Breyer The Philosophers' Brief The Oregon Death With Dignity Act: Measure #16