Physician-Assisted Dying

Timothy E. Quill, M.D., is a professor of medicine, psychiatry, and medical humanities at the University of Rochester and author of A Midwife through the Dying Process, also available from Johns Hopkins. Margaret P. Battin, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and an adjunct professor of medical ethics at the University of Utah. She is the author of The Least Worst Death.

Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction. False Dichotomy versus Genuine Choice: The Argument over Physician-Assisted Dying
Part I: Perspectives on Mercy, Nonabandonment, Autonomy, and Choice
Chapter 1. The Quality of Mercy
Chapter 2. Nonabandonment: A Central Obligation for Physicians
Chapter 3. The Role of Autonomy in Choosing Physician Aid in Dying
Chapter 4. Disability and Physician-Assisted Dying
Chapter 5. When Suffering Patients Seek Death
Part II: Clinical, Philosophical, and Religious Issues about the Ending of Life
Chapter 6. Why Do People Seek Physician-Assisted Death?
Chapter 7. Doctor-Patient Communication about Physician-Assisted Suicide
Chapter 8. When Hastened Death Is Neither Killing Nor Letting Die
Chapter 9. Physician-Assisted Suicide as a Last-Resort Option at the End of Life
Chapter 10. Death: A Friend to Be Welcomed, Not an Enemy to Be Defeated
Part III: Open Practice in a Legally Tolerant Environment
Chapter 11. The Oregon Experience
Chapter 12. The Distortion of Cases in Oregon
Chapter 13. A Model That Integrates Assisted Dying with Excellent End-of-Life Care
Chapter 14. Thirty Years' Experience with Euthanasia in the Netherlands: Focusing on the Patient as a Person
Chapter 15. The Death of My Father
Chapter 16. Assisted Death in the Netherlands: Physicians at the Bedside When Help Is Requested
Part IV: Political and Legal Ferment
Chapter 17. Political Strategy and Legal Change
Chapter 18. Legal Advocacy to Improve Care and Expand Options at the End of Life
Chapter 19. Physician-Assisted Suicide: Shifting the Focus from Means to Ends
Chapter 20. Choice in Dying: A Political and Constitutional Context
Chapter 21. Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins of the Status Quo
Conclusion. Excellent Palliative Care as the Standard, Physician-Assisted Dying as a Last Resort
Index