New Directions in the Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   • Michael Cholbi, Jukka Varelius

   Pages 1-10

3. Assisted Dying and the Proper Role of Patient Autonomy

   • Emma C. Bullock

   Pages 11-25

4. Preventing Assistance to Die: Assessing Indirect Paternalism Regarding Voluntary Active Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

   • Thomas Schramme

   Pages 27-40

5. Autonomy, Interests, Justice and Active Medical Euthanasia

   • Julian Savulescu

   Pages 41-58

6. Mental Illness, Lack of Autonomy, and Physician-Assisted Death

   • Jukka Varelius

   Pages 59-77

7. Euthanasia for Mental Suffering

   • Kasper Raus, Sigrid Sterckx

   Pages 79-96

8. Assisted Dying for Individuals with Dementia: Challenges for Translating Ethical Positions into Law

   • Jocelyn Downie, Georgia Lloyd-Smith

   Pages 97-123

9. Clinical Ethics Consultation and Physician Assisted Suicide

   • David M. Adams

   Pages 125-147

10. License to Kill: A New Model for Excusing Medically Assisted Dying?

    • Richard Huxtable, Jonathan Ives

    Pages 149-168

11. Medically Enabled Suicides

    • Michael Cholbi

    Pages 169-184

12. Saving Lives with Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Organ Donation After Assisted Dying

    • David M. Shaw

    Pages 185-192

13. Implanted Medical Devices and End-of-Life Decisions

    • Michael B. Gill

    Pages 193-215

14. Everyday Attitudes About Euthanasia and the Slippery Slope Argument

    • Adam Feltz

    Pages 217-237

15. “You Got Me Into This…”: Procreative Responsibility and Its Implications for Suicide and Euthanasia

    • Rivka Weinberg

    Pages 239-252

This book provides novel perspectives on the ethical justifiability of assisted dying. Seeking to go beyond traditional debates on topics such as the value of human life and questions surrounding intention and causation, this volume promises to shift the terrain of the ethical debates about assisted dying. It reconsiders the role of patient autonomy and paternalistic reasons as well as the part proposed for medical professionals and clinical ethics consultation in connection with assisted dying, relates the debate on assisted dying to questions about organ-donation and developments in medical technology, and demonstrates the significance of experimental philosophy in assessing questions of assisted dying. This book is ideal for advanced courses in bioethics and health care ethics.

• Ethics of Assisted Suicide
• Ethics of Euthanasia
• Health Care Policy
• Physician-assisted suicide
• Voluntary euthanasia

“This book compiles information from the vast literature on euthanasia and elicits four general themes found in current and past arguments for and against physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. … intended for scholars in disciplines contributing to the literature on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, including medical professionals, ethicists, philosophers, theologians, and legal scholars. … a unique contribution to the field in that it provides a structure that scholars can use to review the literature addressing physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.” (Tyler Zahrli, Doody's Book Reviews, March, 2016)

• Department of Philosophy, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA

  Michael Cholbi

• Dept. of Behavioural Sciences and Philos, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

  Jukka Varelius

Michael Cholbi is an ethicist who has written on such topics as suicide, punishment, Kantian ethics, paternalism, and moral motivation. In addition to his book Suicide: The Philosophical Dimensions, he has published in journals such as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Bioethics, Law and Philosophy, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, Philosophical Psychology, Ratio, Social Theory and Practice, and Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. Jukka Varelius is a philosopher whose work focuses on questions of moral philosophy and applied ethics. He has written on topics such as physician assisted death, individual autonomy, informed consent, advance directives, the nature of mental and physical health, and ethical expertise in journals like Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Neuroethics, Bioethics, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, Journal of Applied Philosophy, The Journal of Value Inquiry, and Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.Varelius is also a co-editor of Adaptation and Autonomy: Adaptive Preferences in Enhancing and Ending Life (Springer, 2013).

Policies and ethics