Asking to Die: Inside the Dutch Debate about Euthanasia

• Συγγραφή απο Οργανισμό/Αρχή: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Thomasma, David C. (Επιμελητής έκδοσης), Kimbrough-Kushner, Thomasine (Επιμελητής έκδοσης), Kimsma, Gerrit K. (Επιμελητής έκδοσης), Ciesielski-Carlucci, Chris (Επιμελητής έκδοσης)
• Μορφή: Ηλεκτρονική πηγή Ηλ. βιβλίο
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 1998.
• Θέματα: Medicine.; Political science.; Ethics.; Public health.; Medical ethics.; Medicine & Public Health.; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics.; Public Health.; Political Science.

 claim was that he had faced a conflict of duties pitting his legal duty not to kill against his duty as a physician to relieve his patient’s unbearable suffering. He was acquitted on the important grounds of conflict of duty. These grounds are based on a concept in Dutch law called "force majeure" 4 which recognizes extenuating circumstances such as conflicts of duty. The acquittal was upheld by the Lower Court of Alkmaar, but revoked by an Amsterdam court of appeal. The case went on to the Supreme Court, but before the Supreme Court's decision was issued, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (RDMA) attempted to clarify the criteria for euthanasia that many within the profession already accepted. The RDMA proposed that physicians be permitted to perform euthanasia provided that a set of procedures had been met. Variously stated, the guidelines contain the following central provisions: Voluntary, competent, explicit, and persistent requests on the part of the • patient; Requests based on full information; • The patient is in a situation of intolerable and hopeless suffering (either • physical or mental); No further acceptable alternatives to euthanasia. All alternatives • acceptable to the patient for relief of suffering having been tried; Consultation with at least one other physician whose judgment can be • 5 expected to be independent. Indirectly, these guidelines became the criteria prosecutors used to decide whether or not to bring charges. 

 Prologue -- Prologue -- The Dutch Definition of Euthanasia -- The Dutch Definition of Euthanasia -- Toward a Dutch Compromise: Perspectives from Government, Law, Medicine, and Academia -- Twenty-Five Years of Dutch Experience and Policy on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: An Overview -- Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands and the USA: Comparing Practices, Justifications and Key Concepts in Bioethics and Law -- Physician Assisted Suicide in Psychiatry: An Analysis of Case Law and Professional Opinions -- The Slippery Slope: Are The Dutch Sliding Down or Are They Clambering Up? -- Teaching Euthanasia: The Integration of the Practice of Euthanasia into Grief, Death and Dying Curricula of Post-Graduate Family Medicine Training -- Comparing Two Euthanasia Protocols: The Free University of Amsterdam Academic Hospital and the Medical Center of Alkmaar -- Euthanasia Drugs in the Netherlands -- Empirical Research on Euthanasia and Other Medical End-of-Life Decisions and the Euthanasia Notification Procedure -- Palliative Care: Dutch Hospice and Euthanasia -- Euthanasia and the Power of Medicine -- A Religious Argument in Favor of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide -- The Range of Objections to Euthanasia -- Catholic Healthcare and the Dutch National Character -- Living with Euthanasia: Physicians and Families Speak for Themselves -- Annie Asked, “Are You Going to Help Me?” -- “In Death He Achieved a Stature that He Never Had in Life” -- “The Moment Will Come When I Will Have to Kill Him” -- “Killing is Always Bad, But Not Always the Worst Alternative” -- “A Tragedy” -- “The Euthanasia Mountain Gets Higher and Higher” -- “I Will Not Leave You Alone” -- “The Worst Moments of My Life” -- “Euthanasia is Not So Much About Shortening Life, But More Directly About Shortening Suffering” -- Euthanasia in the Nursing Home: “We Had a Problem Not to Let the Other Patients Know What Was Happening” -- “Just What Are We Doing?” -- “I was the First Physician in the Netherlands Prosecuted for Performing Euthanasia on a Patient Who was not a Relative.” -- Arlene Judith Klotzko and Dr. Boudewijn Chabot Discuss Assisted Suicide in the Absence of Somatic Illness -- What Kind of Life? What Kind of Death? An Interview with Dr. Henk Prins -- “What is There to Be Frightened About? After All, It’s Not Like I Am Going to the Dentist!” -- The Story of Laurens -- “I Walked Out Into The Kitchen; I Could Not Endure It” -- “He Was Dead Before He Even Passed Away” -- “We Will Have to Make of Life What We Can” -- A Double Life -- “You Will Do Well With The Children” -- “As Soon As Possible Please” -- “What Life Was Left to Live?” -- “I Don’t Want To Be Put Away Like A Dog” -- “We Are Living in a House of Death; Everyone Who Enters Here Will Die” -- Euthanasia: Promises and Perils -- The Hard Unanswered Questions: Issues That Continue to Divide the Dutch and Fuel Debate -- New Directions.