Assisted Dying

ACT at the End is based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and while it has a grounding in research, it is also a hands-on clinical guide for those working with people at a tricky and complex time of life. This treatment manual is arranged to support clinicians in stepping through common concerns and addressing the ways that people at this stage of life may require psychological support as well as strategies for supporting clinicians working in this space. The guide provides a formulated ACT approach to address each element of the Hexaflex, as well as work around self-compassion and using ACT approaches to support difficult decision making. This book provides examples that clinicians will be able to apply to their own practices and tools that they can use to troubleshoot clinical concerns. It's a helpful companion to clinicians navigating challenging terrain--much in the way that someone might turn to a colleague for advice, it is open and accessible, while still recognizing the ways in which that the work is hard.

Que répondent la société, la médecine, à une personne qui demande à être aidée à mourir ? Le débat oppose partisans (une majorité de Français) et adversaires (dont nombre de soignants) de la légalisation de l'euthanasie ou du suicide assisté. Pourtant, les seconds ont bien vocation à prendre soin des premiers : sont-ils réconciliables ? Quels sont leurs arguments, et qu'oublient-ils de dire ? La loi peut-elle résoudre le dilemme éthique ? Ce livre d'un médecin, qui est aussi un proche de malades, ne suit aucune des voies tracées d'avance - ni le courant dominant, ni celui de ses confrères. Prenant appui sur les philosophes, les écrivains et le cinéma, il apporte la contradiction au cœur des mots vulnérabilité, autonomie, dignité et même bienfaisance, et permet ainsi d'appréhender la grande complexité inhérente à la question de l'aide active à mourir. Longtemps déchiré, gouverné par la seule intransigeance exténuante de la mesure, François Blot conclut par la primauté de l'écoute de la personne malade.

"Can I choose to die?" As the number of requests for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide continues to rise, human rights law faces a new conflict: the right to die vs. the right to life...  The right to die or, in other words, 'the right to choose the time and manner of one's own death' is a question of personal autonomy and its limits. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the right to die and sheds light on its possible future under the European Convention on Human Rights. After setting a clear framework by defining the key terminology, the book takes a two-part approach to achieving its aim. The first part focuses on the right to die in practice by examining selected jurisdictions. Switzerland, which is famous for its assisted suicide organizations, and the Netherlands, which was the first country to legalize euthanasia, are examined in detail. Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and -as an exception to the Convention perspective - Canadaare also included. While this examination offers a better understanding of what the right to die looks like in practice, it also provides insights on the slippery slope argument, which serves as a counterweight to personal autonomy, without making a definitive statement on its validity. This part also illustrates the different paths that led or did not lead to the right to die in practice. The second part is an analysis of the European Court of Human Rights case law on the right to die. The Court has made important statements in only very cases, while its caution when approaching such a delicate and controversial topic among its 47 members is understandably emphasized. This analysis of the Court's approach to the balancing of personal autonomy against other interests allows us to take a look back at the practice in more permissive jurisdictions through the lens of the Convention. Taken together, the book's two parts provide valuable lessons for countries that decideto practice assisted dying, which are outlined in the conclusion. In addition, given that a purely legal approach can only offer a partial picture, the book argues that an interdisciplinary approach would be much more favorable in terms of providing the necessary basis for the right to die debate.

This book analyses the political and public debates about euthanasia in Portugal. Utilising petitions submitted to Parliament, legislative bills, parliamentary debates, opinion articles in newspapers, and documents published by the Catholic Church, it examines this sensitive issue through the theoretical lens of morality politics. It does so by studying the process of political dispute between advocacy coalitions formed by political parties and societal actors. This is the first book to comprehensively analyse a morality issue in Portugal, a predominantly Catholic country that has taken an innovative and liberal stance on many morality issues over the last two decades. It will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, political science, public policy and bioethics, as well as policymakers and other interest groups.

The book describes the historical development of the legislation on euthanasia and suicide in The Netherlands. During the last about 70 years. Part 1 summarizes the development until about 2017. Parts 2 and 3 deal with the period from August 2017 until about the end of February 2022. The book ends when neither in the Netherlands nor in Germany legislation on euthanasia was completed. Presently, in many countries, legislation on euthanasia is discussed, about to be prepared, or there already exist legislative proposals. The aim of the book is to let the Dutch respective public opinions, political ideas, research results, proposals from legal academics, science, and court decisions participate in the international discussion so that in so far comparison can help also to find answers to open questions and satisfying legal regulations.

Since the introduction of voluntary assisted dying in 2019, a 'new moment' in the governance of life and death has opened up within the Australian context. This new moment demands new questions be asked regarding the regime and its effects in this new era for law, health care and justice. This collection brings together critical perspectives on voluntary assisted dying itself, and on various practices adjacent to it, including questions of state power, population ageing, the differential treatment of human and non-human animals at the time of death, the management of health care processes through silent ‘workarounds’, and the financialisation of death. This book provides an overview of the first Australian regime, and then introduces these diverse critical views, broadening our engagement with euthanasia and voluntary assisted dying beyond the limited, but important, debates about law reform and its particular enactment in Australia.

Many books have been published about physician-assisted death. This book offers a comprehensive and in-depth examination of that subject, but it also extends the discussion to a broader range of end-of-life decisions including suicide, palliative care and sedation until death. In every jurisdiction that has laws permitting some kind of physician-assisted death, a central point of controversy is whether such assistance should only be available to dying patients, or to everyone who wants to end his life. The right to determine the manner and time of one's own death, however, does not necessarily mean that physicians should be permitted to cooperate in ensuring a quick and peaceful death. In this book, Govert den Hartogh considers the fundamental and practical matters - including concrete issues of legal regulation - related to end-of life decision making. He proposes a two-tiered system. Everyone should have access to humane means of ending his life, if his decision to end it is voluntary, well-considered and durable. But doctors should only participate in a joint action of ending the patient's life on his request if they also are convinced of acting in the patient's best interests, in particular by ending intolerable and unrelievable suffering. And perhaps there is reason to restrict that second service to dying patients. The whole argument, however, depends on the extent to which, in both tiers of the system, we can design legal safeguards that will enable us to trust judgments about the requesting person's request and about his suffering. The book considers much new evidence in regard to this issue. What Kind of Death will appeal to researchers and advanced students working in bioethics, applied ethics, philosophy of law and health law.