Asking to Die: Inside the Dutch Debate about Euthanasia

Front Matter....Pages i-xx
Prologue....Pages 1-2
The Dutch Definition of Euthanasia....Pages 3-4
Front Matter....Pages 5-18
Twenty-Five Years of Dutch Experience and Policy on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: An Overview....Pages 19-34
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands and the USA: Comparing Practices, Justifications and Key Concepts in Bioethics and Law....Pages 35-70
Physician Assisted Suicide in Psychiatry: An Analysis of Case Law and Professional Opinions....Pages 71-91
The Slippery Slope: Are The Dutch Sliding Down or Are They Clambering Up?....Pages 93-104
Teaching Euthanasia: The Integration of the Practice of Euthanasia into Grief, Death and Dying Curricula of Post-Graduate Family Medicine Training....Pages 105-113
Comparing Two Euthanasia Protocols: The Free University of Amsterdam Academic Hospital and the Medical Center of Alkmaar....Pages 115-133
Euthanasia Drugs in the Netherlands....Pages 135-147
Empirical Research on Euthanasia and Other Medical End-of-Life Decisions and the Euthanasia Notification Procedure....Pages 149-183
Palliative Care: Dutch Hospice and Euthanasia....Pages 187-203
Euthanasia and the Power of Medicine....Pages 205-220
A Religious Argument in Favor of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide....Pages 221-226
The Range of Objections to Euthanasia....Pages 227-240
Catholic Healthcare and the Dutch National Character....Pages 241-253
Front Matter....Pages 255-266
Annie Asked, “Are You Going to Help Me?”....Pages 271-279
“In Death He Achieved a Stature that He Never Had in Life”....Pages 281-291
“The Moment Will Come When I Will Have to Kill Him”....Pages 293-302
“Killing is Always Bad, But Not Always the Worst Alternative”....Pages 303-308
“A Tragedy”....Pages 309-312
Front Matter....Pages 255-266
“The Euthanasia Mountain Gets Higher and Higher”....Pages 313-320
“I Will Not Leave You Alone”....Pages 321-333
“The Worst Moments of My Life”....Pages 337-344
“Euthanasia is Not So Much About Shortening Life, But More Directly About Shortening Suffering”....Pages 345-348
Euthanasia in the Nursing Home: “We Had a Problem Not to Let the Other Patients Know What Was Happening”....Pages 349-353
“Just What Are We Doing?”....Pages 355-364
“I was the First Physician in the Netherlands Prosecuted for Performing Euthanasia on a Patient Who was not a Relative.”....Pages 367-372
Arlene Judith Klotzko and Dr. Boudewijn Chabot Discuss Assisted Suicide in the Absence of Somatic Illness....Pages 373-387
What Kind of Life? What Kind of Death? An Interview with Dr. Henk Prins....Pages 389-406
“What is There to Be Frightened About? After All, It’s Not Like I Am Going to the Dentist!”....Pages 409-415
The Story of Laurens....Pages 417-419
“I Walked Out Into The Kitchen; I Could Not Endure It”....Pages 421-424
“He Was Dead Before He Even Passed Away”....Pages 425-430
“We Will Have to Make of Life What We Can”....Pages 431-438
A Double Life....Pages 439-448
“You Will Do Well With The Children”....Pages 449-454
“As Soon As Possible Please”....Pages 455-461
“What Life Was Left to Live?”....Pages 463-470
“I Don’t Want To Be Put Away Like A Dog”....Pages 471-479
“We Are Living in a House of Death; Everyone Who Enters Here Will Die”....Pages 481-484
Front Matter....Pages 485-485
The Hard Unanswered Questions: Issues That Continue to Divide the Dutch and Fuel Debate....Pages 487-504
New Directions....Pages 505-516
Back Matter....Pages 517-584