Right to Die with Dignity

Raphael Cohen-Almagor has been the Fulbright-Yitzhak Rabin Scholar and a visiting professor at UCLA School of Law and department of communication. He is chairperson of library and information studies at the University of Haifa, and the author of The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance, Speech, Media and Ethics: The Limits of Free Expression, and Euthanasia in the Netherlands.

• 1. Language and Reality at the End of Life2. Post-Coma Unawareness Patients3. Sanctity and Quality of Life in Medical Ethics4. Passive and Active Euthanasia5. What Interests Do We Have?6. The Role of the Patients' Loved Ones7. An Outsider's View of Dutch Euthanasia Policy and Practice8. The Oregon Death with Dignity ActConclusions: A Circumscribed Plea for Voluntary Physician-Assisted SuicideApp. Ethical, and Financial Considerations in Allocating Health Care Resources

The author attempts a balanced approach to the right to die debate, viewing the dispute from public policy and international perspectives. He offers an interdisciplinary approach, including medicine, law, religion, and ethics. With a comprehensive look at the troubling question of whether physician-assisted suicide should be allowed, he delineates a distinction between active and passive euthanasia and discusses legal measures that have been involved in the United States and abroad. (Issues in Law & Medicine) Cohen-Almagor uses insightful examples and applies his penetrating intellect to shed light upon some of the most difficult choices that arise at the end of life. - Robert D. Truog M.D. (professor of anesthesia and medical ethics, Harvard Medical School) A nuanced discussion of some of the most difficult issues in health, law, and bioethics today, written in a lively prose and with a clear sense of moral passion. The international perspective is particularly useful and, undoubtedly, Cohen-AlmagorÆs arguments and conclusions will provoke discussion. - John D. Lantos M.D. (codirector, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, The University of Chi)