In Japan, there are no acts and, specific provisions or official guidelines on euthanasia, but recently, as I will mention below, an official guideline on "death with dignity" has been made. Nevertheless in fact, this guideline provides only a few rules of process on terminal care. Therefore the problems of euthanasia and "death with dignity" are mainly left to the legal interpretation by liter...

This study explores explanations for the approval of euthanasia by assessing differences among individuals and countries, using four main arguments used by opponents and proponents in the public debate over euthanasia. We performed multilevel analysis on data from thirtythree countries, obtained from the European Values Study 1999/2000 and the World Values Survey 2000; we enriched these data wi...


 This paper analyzes the opinions on and attitudes towards end of life among population residing in Argentina. The data presented are taken from Second National Survey Religious Beliefs Attitudes Argentina, which was conducted a multi-stage sample 2421 cases 89 districts throughout country. Opinions about include positions favor euthanasia, requesting extension through support technologie...

In this article I intend to describe an issue of the Dutch euthanasia practice that is not common knowledge. After some general introductory descriptions, by way of formulating a frame of reference, I shall describe the effects of this practice on patients, physicians and families, followed by a more philosophical reflection on the significance of these effects for the assessment of the authent...

BACKGROUND In most European countries the attitudes regarding the acceptability of active euthanasia have clearly changed in the population since World War II. Therefore, it is interesting to know which trends in attitudes prevail among the physicians of the future. METHODS The present study analyses trends in the attitudes towards active euthanasia in medical students at the Medical Universi...

The literature on the use of carbon dioxide for inhalation euthanasia of laboratory animals can be considered separately for rodents and poultry. It discusses measurement of aversion to carbon dioxide at different concentrations and with different methods of use, the importance of user training and the variation amongst existing international guidelines. Recent literature recommends the use of ...

In The Netherlands, neonatal euthanasia has become a legal option and the Groningen Protocol contains an approach to identify situations in which neonatal euthanasia might be appropriate. In the 5 years following the publication of the protocol, neither the prediction that this would be the first step on a slippery slope, nor the prediction of complete transparency and legal control became true...

A study of 78 parents of Down's syndrome children shows that, while most were in favour of abortion for a handicapped fetus, they were divided equally on whether euthanasia (no distinction made between active and passive euthanasia) was an acceptable practice. Only a third considered an average Down's syndrome child could be a suitable candidate for euthanasia. While parents argued that the deg...

BACKGROUND Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that causes progressive paralysis leading to respiratory failure. Patients with ALS may consider physician-assisted suicide. However, it is not known how many patients, if given the option, would actually decide to end their lives by physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia nor at what stage of the disease they would choose to do so. ...