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Robin Tapley, "Good Death, Bad Death: Why a Doctor's Help in Dying Ought to be Permitted" The modern death is a frightening event to anticipate. What has changed the way we die from quick to slow, and thus confronts many of us with the prospect of a "bad death" is technology. However, life ending technology could be as beneficial an application of technology as life extending treatment once extending life has raised the spectre of the bad death. Harvey Max Chochinov, "Physician and Patient Attitudes Toward Euthanasia" The author surveys what we know about the attitudes patients and physicians have toward physician assisted suicide. Interest in hastening death is associated with a number of conditions, some of which may be treatable. Endorsement of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide may be inversely proportional to one's proximity to dying, and the attitude among the dying toward hastening death shows considerable fluctuation over time. Russell Ogden, "Oregon's Measure 16: A Bitter Pill" On November 8, 1994, the state of Oregon became the first place in the world to legalise physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. The author argues that Oregon's so-called Measure 16 is socially irresponsible, not because it would allow competent adults the right to choose death but because it is a law that promotes a specific way of dying (oral self-administration of a lethal cocktail of drugs) that for many will be a death by coat-hanger euthanasia. Nathan I. Cherney, "Does Good Palliative Care Have What it Takes?" The request for assistance in suicide usually derives from severe patient distress and indicates significant suffering. An appreciation of the diversity of factors that may contribute to suffering underscores the need for methodical assessment and familiarity with a range of therapeutic strategies. When other options are available, euthanasia and assisted suicide fall outside of the purview of Hippocratic medicine. Given the existence of other options, the lack of resources currently allocated to the relief of suffering and the vulnerability of the patient population involved, the author maintains reservations regarding the legalization of assisted suicide. We should focus on the provision of care that would diminish the impression that elective death is necessary to ensure adequate relief. J. Saint-Arnaud, "L'institutionalisation des pratiques d'euthanasie et d'aide au suicide revisitée" The author considers what we know about the incidence of demand for assisted suicide and euthanasia, what those requests signify, and how society, and in particular the health care system, should respond. This is done, first, in the context of a review of recent assessments of the experience with physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands and, second, with regard to AIDS patients, where the incidence of requests for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is particularly high. Margaret Somerville, "Euthanasia by Confusion" The euthanasia debate -- as is also true of physician-assisted suicide -- is highly confused. One important way to promote the legalisation of euthanasia is through various types of confusion. Some of the confusions is the result of semantics. Confusion is also created through the use of language, through association and through a confusion of means and ends in ethical analysis. The euthanasia debate is too important to carry out through such confusion or "in stages." We must address it openly, honestly, directly and, it is to be hoped, wisely. John Keown, "Voluntary Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Beyond Control?" The author looks at the experience of the Netherlands to assess the validity of the slippery slope with respect euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. A critique of the Dutch guidelines for euthanasia, a summary of the empirical data and a number of recent developments leave the author no doubt that The Netherlands is on a slippery slope and that other countries would do well not to follow its lead in legalizing euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. Margaret I. Fitch, "A Nursing Perspective on Assisted Suicide" Because nurses care for terminally ill patients, they cannot avoid the debate over assisted suicide. The authors looks at nursing attitudes toward assisted suicide and reflects on the role that nurses must play, in spite of their own personal beliefs, in difficult death situations. Michael Stingl, "Euthanasia, the Health System and Lives Worth Living" What ultimately makes a human life valuable is whether it is valuable from the inside, from the perspective of the person living the life. In discussing the moral legitimacy of voluntary euthanasia, the author focusses on the many ways in which health problems may impinge on the meaningfulness of our lives. In responding to such debilitating health conditions, how far ought the responsiblilites of the health system extend in protecting the meaningfulness of individual people's live? If our health care system fails people, on what moral ground do we deny them the right to choose euthanasia should they find their lives intolerable? Jacques Frémont and François Boudreault, "De l'inconstitutionnalité possible d'un amendement constitutionnel relatif à la scéession du Québec" Within the context of the current reference to the Supreme Court of Canada concerning the legality of Quebec's secession, this paper argues that it might very well be impossible under the Canadian Constitution to use the Amending formula in order to "swallow" Quebec's secession. This position is based upon the existence of supraconstitutional principles which would invalidate any constitutional amendment relating to this matter. One must infer, logically, that the amending formula cannot be used by Quebec in order to seceede, Canadian constitutional Law requiring a Unilateral Declaration of Independance in order for the secession to materialize. Keith Karamitsos and Melvin H. Smith, "Opening the Floodgates: Bill C-31 and Native Membership" Sorry, but the summary of this article is not available. Bruce Morito, "Value Generated Policy: Regard For Traditional Knowledge" The debate in a recent issue of Policy Options (March 1997) over the use of traditional knowledge in environmental assessment highlights the importance of the particular values that underlie policies and policy making. Rick Szostak, "Constitutional Reform Made Easy" Sorry, but the summary of this article is not available. |
