Assisted Suicide
Assisted Suicide | Allowing Competent People to Commit Suicide Is Ethical
About the author: Julian Savulescu teaches philosophy at the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University in Australia.
Do-gooders do unwanted good. The trouble with do-gooders is that, despite the best intentions, they often fail to do good. . . . Sometimes, do-gooders do some good. Yet the trouble is that this good is not wanted. My object is the dogooder in general. However, my focus will be the medical do-gooder: the doctor who helps a patient out of a sincere desire to do the best for him or her, when the patient does not want help.
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- Introduction
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Chapter 1
- Chapter 1 Preface
- Assisted Suicide Shows Compassion for the Dying
- Assisted Suicide Is Consistent with Christian Beliefs
- Christian Arguments Against Assisted Suicide Are Misguided
- Allowing Competent People to Commit Suicide Is Ethical
- Physician-Assisted Suicide Undermines Medical Ethics
- Assisted Suicide Distorts the Meaning of Mercy
- Assisted Suicide Violates Christian Beliefs
- Assisted Suicide Violates the Dignity of Patients
- Assisted Suicide Is Not Morally Equivalent to Letting Patients Die
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Chapter 2
- Chapter 2 Preface
- Bans on Assisted Suicide Violate the Fourteenth Amendment
- Assisted Suicide Is an Individual Freedom
- Assisted Suicide Is a Fundamental Constitutional Right
- Assisted Suicide Is the Ultimate Civil Right
- Bans on Assisted Suicide Do Not Violate the Fourteenth Amendment
- Arguments Supporting a Constitutional Right to Suicide Are Illogical
- A Constitutional Right to Assisted Suicide Would Threaten Patients’ Right to Refuse Treatment
- The Supreme Court’s Position on Assisted Suicide Is Valid
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Chapter 3
- Chapter 3 Preface
- Legalized Physician- Assisted Suicide Would Improve Treatment of the Terminally Ill
- Safeguards Can Prevent the Abuse of Physician- Assisted Suicide
- Legalizing Physician- Assisted Suicide Would Not Threaten the Disabled
- Arguments Against Legalizing Physician- Assisted Suicide Are Unconvincing
- Support for Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide Is Based on Mistaken Notions
- Legalized Physician- Assisted Suicide Would Lead to Abuses
- Legalizing Physician- Assisted Suicide Would Harm Society
- Legalized Physician- Assisted Suicide Would Damage the Physician- Patient Relationship
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Chapter 4
- Chapter 4 Preface
- Assisted Suicide Would Threaten the Nonfatally Ill
- Assisted Suicide Would Threaten the Rights of the Disabled
- Assisted Suicide Would Create an Inhumane Society
- Assisted Suicide Will Be Encouraged for Economic Reasons
- Assisted Suicide Would Respect the Rights of the Terminally Ill
- Assisted Suicide Would Respect the Rights of the Elderly
- Voluntary Euthanasia Would Not Lead to Involuntary Killing
- Some Individuals Have a Duty to Die
- Organizations to Contact
- Bibliography
- Copyright
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