Title: Understanding assisted suicide : nine issues to consider /
Authors: Mitchell, John B. 1944-
Publisher: University of Michigan Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Suicide, Assisted ethics; Assisted suicide; Euthanasia; Terminal care Moral and ethical aspects
Abstract: Understanding Assisted Suicide provides both a fresh take on this important topic and the context of intelligent participation in the discussion. Uniquely, John Mitchell frames the issue using his own experience of watching both his parents die, which led him to ask fundamental questions about death, dying, religion, and the role of medicine and technology in alleviating human suffering.
Contents: Cultural arguments that assisted suicide is always wrong -- Religious arguments for maintaining that suicide is morally "wrong" -- Utilitarian arguments against suicide -- The slippery slope phenomenon -- My path turns: looking at autonomy and moral claims to the right to assisted suicide -- Act utilitarianism as a moral basis for justifying assisted suicide -- The moral claim justifying physician-assisted suicide with the combination of autonomy and mercy -- Law and assisted suicide -- The question of whether legislatures should or should not legalize physician-assisted suicide.