How should Australia regulate voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide?

Considerations Regarding the Ethical Viability of Voluntary Active Euthanasia

Issues regarding death are incredibly complicated and involve topics that are often difficult to discuss. In this essay, I will argue that active euthanasia is morally and ethically permissible in instances involving consenting terminally ill patients. Using an act-utilitarian approach, I contend that voluntary active euthanasia should be seen as a viable option due to its potential to reduce t...

Pulling up the runaway: the effect of new evidence on euthanasia's slippery slope.

The slippery slope argument has been the mainstay of many of those opposed to the legalisation of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. In this paper I re-examine the slippery slope in the light of two recent studies that examined the prevalence of medical decisions concerning the end of life in the Netherlands and in Australia. I argue that these two studies have robbed the slippery slope...

Voluntary Active Euthanasia: The Debate

Voluntary active euthanasia refers to a clearly competent patient making a voluntary and persistent request for aid in dying (Brock 1999; Ogubanjo & Knapp van Bogaert 2008). In this case, the individual or a person acting on that individual’s behalf (physician or lay person, depending on the law of the country) takes active steps to hasten death (LaFollette, 1997). That active step can be eithe...

Physician-assisted suicide: the legal slippery slope.

BACKGROUND In Oregon, physicians can prescribe lethal amounts of medication only if requested by competent, terminally ill patients. However, the possibility of extending the practice to patients who lack decisional capacity exists. This paper examines why the legal extension of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) to incapacitated patients is possible, and perhaps likely. METHODS The author revi...

Physician assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia: some relevant differences.