"When a country legalizes active euthanasia, it puts itself on a slippery slope from where it may well go further downward." If true, this is a forceful argument in the battle of those who try to prevent euthanasia from becoming legal. The force of any slippery slope argument, however, is by definition limited by its reference to future developments which cannot empirically be sustained. Experi...

OBJECTIVE To identify and evaluate coping strategies advocated by experienced animal shelter workers who directly engaged in euthanizing animals. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SAMPLE POPULATION Animal shelters across the United States in which euthanasia was conducted (5 to 100 employees/shelter). PROCEDURES With the assistance of experts associated with the Humane Society of the United S...

The global euthanasia debate by health care professionals has raised important ethical issues concerning the professional duties and responsibilities of nurses caring for terminal patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of acutely ill patients towards the practice of euthanasia in Hong Kong. A modified form of the 23-item Questionnaire for General Household Survey scale...

Euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2002 for adults under strict conditions. The patient must be in a medically futile condition and of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated, resulting from a serious and incurable disorder caused by illness or accident. Between 2005 and 2007, 4 patients (3 in Antwerp and 1 in Liège) expressed their will for organ dona...

A variety of recent developments in medical technology enable physicians to prolong life, a goal long sought by the medical profession. Artificial life support, in particular, has changed the medical environment, and physicians now seem to pay more attention to prolonging life than to pain relief and other important aspects of quality of life as it relates to medical care. The perception of qua...

The Spanish government recently passed legislation that legalized euthanasia. This article analyzes the Organic Law on Regulation of Voluntary Euthanasia by exploring its procedural aspects, various methods providing assistance to die and medical role under law. After this examination, points out three potential problems with respect law’s practical implementation. first problem is lack explici...

Opinions of university students about euthanasia were studied in 4 cities in Pakistan using convenience sampling. A total of 836 students (316 males and 520 females) completed a questionnaire in which euthanasia was defined as deliberate administration of an overdose of a drug by a doctor to relieve pain and suffering of a dying patient at his/her explicit request to end his/her life. Only 25.6...

German psychiatrists proposed the extermination of mental patients before Hitler came to power. Then in Nazi Germany, organized psychiatry implemented involuntary eugenical sterilization and euthanasia, ultimately killing up to 100000 German mental patients. The six psychiatric euthanasia centers utilized medical professionals, fake death certificates, gas chambers disguised as showers, and the...

During the past decade, the debate about legalising euthanasia has grown in many developed countries, including France. Medical journals have reflected this: surveys have assessed doctors’ attitudes toward euthanasia and bioethics articles have discussed the pros and cons. Supporters of legalisation argue that euthanasia is a continuation of palliative care and that doctors must respect patient...

Belgium has recently extended its euthanasia legislation to minors, making it the first legislation in the world that does not specify any age limit. I consider two strands in the opposition to this legislation. First, I identify five arguments in the public debate to the effect that euthanasia for minors is somehow worse than euthanasia for adults--viz, arguments from weightiness, capability o...