Dying with Dignity: The Role of Dignity in the Irish Constitution and its Implications for the Prohibition of Assisted Suicide

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Duff
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Stefanowicz

This article undertakes to show the way that has led to the statutory decriminalization of euthanasia-related murder and assisted suicide in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It presents the evolution of the views held by Dutch society on the euthanasia related practice, in the consequence of which death on demand has become legal after less than thirty years. Due attention is paid to the role of organs of public authority in these changes, with a particular emphasis put on the role of the Dutch Parliament – the States General. Because of scarcity of space and limited length of the article, the change in the attitudes toward euthanasia, which has taken place in the Netherlands, is presented in a synthetic way – from the first discussions on admissibility of a euthanasia-related murder carried out in the 1970s, through the practice of killing patients at their request, which was against the law at that time, but with years began more and more acceptable, up to the statutory decriminalization of euthanasia by the Dutch Parliament, made with the support of the majority of society.


Thomas Szasz ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
George J. Annas

Szasz objected to the medicalization of suicide, the legalization of suicide prevention, and especially the coercive role of psychiatry in this realm. He declared that, by medicalizing suicide, we banish the subject from discussion. What is meant by acceptable and unacceptable “suicide”? Who has a right to commit suicide? How does suicide implicate freedom? Does it reflect abortion jurisprudence? How do psychiatrists become suicide’s gatekeepers? Current phenomena (e.g., new physician-assisted suicide legislation) illuminate these and other issues (e.g., euthanasia, informed consent, informed refusal, the “right to die,”), all suggesting how Szasz would react to each. Suicide is legal, but is almost always considered a result of mental illness. Courts approve psychiatrists who want to commit “suicidal” patients involuntarily. Granting physicians prospective legal immunity for prescribing lethal drugs is, at best, a strange and tangential reaction to our inability to discuss suicide (and dying) rationally. Szasz got it right.


2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.G. van Bruchem-van de Scheur ◽  
Arie J.G. van der Arend ◽  
Cor Spreeuwenberg ◽  
Huda Huijer Abu-Saad ◽  
Ruud H.J. ter Meulen

2019 ◽  

This groundbreaking volume on secular law in Germany brings together scholars on a variety of topics regarding the separation of the state and religion. It conducts in-depth legal analyses dealing with a wide range of recent cases in which the rule of law and the neutral role of the secular state were put at risk by religious politics. The book’s 21 essays cover topics such as human rights, the constitutional roots of the secular state, freedom of belief and non-belief, medically assisted suicide, sexual self-determination, abortion, genital mutilation, criminal prosecution in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, the collection of church taxes by the state based on baptisms of infants and minors, the collection of special church fees from atheists and Muslims by the state, church labour law, discrimination against members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Islamic veils in state schools. With contributions by editors and authors Dr. Gerhard Czermak | RiBGH Prof. Dr. Ralf Eschelbach | Dr. Carsten Frerk | Prof. Dr. Michael Hassemer | Johann-Albrecht Haupt | Prof. Dr. Rolf Dietrich Herzberg | Prof. Dr. Matthias Franz | Dr. Volker Korndörfer | Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kreß | Ingrid Matthäus-Maier | RA Dr. Till Müller-Heidelberg | Prof. Dr. Reinhard Merkel | RA Ludwig A. Minelli | Dr. Jacqueline Neumann | Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Ulfrid Neumann | Prof. Dr. Holm Putzke | RA Dr. Winfried Rath | StaatsMin a.D. Diplom-Jurist Rolf Schwanitz | Prof. Dr. Jörg Scheinfeld | Dr. Michael Schmidt-Salomon | Sarah Willenbacher


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1618-1626 ◽  
Author(s):  
GG van Bruchem-van de Scheur ◽  
Arie JG van der Arend ◽  
Huda Huijer Abu-Saad ◽  
Frans CB van Wijmen ◽  
Cor Spreeuwenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 593-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Max Chochinov ◽  
Keith G Wilson

Objective To review the current status of the euthanasia debate by examining public and physician attitudes towards euthanasia, the practice of euthanasia in the Netherlands, recent developments in Canada and other countries, psychosocial considerations related to the desire for death in terminally inpatients, and the roles that psychiatrists may be asked to play in the event of legislative reform involving decriminalization. Methods A literature review was conducted focusing on recent surveys regarding physician and patient attitudes towards euthanasia, the role of psychiatrists and empirical data pertaining to the mental state of patients who request physician-hastened death. Results Psychiatric morbidity among patients requesting physician-hastened death is considerable. Conclusion As a special case of suicide, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are of particular relevance to mental health professionals.


BMJ ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 334 (7588) ◽  
pp. 295-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J Ziegler ◽  
Georg Bosshard

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document