| ISSUE SUMMARY |
| Disabilities Ethical History International Medical Psychological Religious |
Australia Euthanasia advocates work to make suicide easy. Belgium Canada England Germany Netherlands Killing Babies, Compassionately. The Netherlands follows in Germany’s footsteps. Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide The Slippery Slope: The Dutch Example New Zealand Switzerland Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Switzerland Assisted-Suicide in Switzerland |
Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide Hendin, Herbert. Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997Dr. Herbert Hendin, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who is a world-renowned authority on suicide, studies cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the United States and in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are accepted. By interviewing leading medical and legal architects of Dutch practices and evaluating actual cases, Dr. Hendin reveals startling facts. He shows how assisted suicide and euthanasia differ in practice from the popular conception that they are an extension of the patients' rights movement, increasing each person's control over care. The Dutch experience provides clear evidence that practicing euthanasia increases the power and control of doctors, who can suggest it without proposing obvious alternatives, who can ignore patients' ambivalence about dying, and who can even put to death patients without their request. Dr. Hendin addresses the difficult questions. Who actually makes the decision that the patient will die? How do the needs and character of family, friends, and doctors affect the choice? Dr. Hendin introduces us to a young American professional recently told he has leukemia, a Dutch man just diagnosed with AIDS, a healthy Dutch mother whose son has just died of cancer‹all say they want to die. Then he demonstrates that what these people actually do varies with the options presented to them. Throughout the book, and particularly in the conclusion, Dr. Hendin shows what the individual can do and what society must do to promote more options for those facing the final phase of life. Posted on June 26, 2004. |