The arguments that disability rights advocates present in opposition to legalized assisted suicide are frequently misconstrued in public debate. The goal of this paper is to identify and analyze key "straw man" fallacies about the disability rights opposition in order to clarify this position and the factors that contribute to its distortion. The author adopts a first-person perspective as a di...

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. ...

52 Physician Assisted Suicide: An Exploration of the Dying Process Kunwar Kaur Abstract Up until about two decades ago, the practice of physician-assisted suicide was prohibited in the United States. However, the issues surrounding the legalization of physicianassisted suicide have long been the topic of debate as proponents seek to change public policy. Just as keenly, though, the opposition s...

Objectives. Several US states have legalized or decriminalised physician assisted suicide (PAS) whilst others are currently considering permitting PAS. Although it has been suggested that legalization could plausibly lead to a reduction in total suicides and to a delay in those suicides which do occur, to date no research has tested whether these effects can be identified in practice. The aim o...

On June 26, 1997, the US Supreme Court ruled in 2 unanimous decisions that there is no constitutionally protected right to assisted suicide. Overturning 2 1996 Federal Appeals Court rulings that had struck down Washington and New York state laws prohibiting assisted suicide, the Supreme Court rejected 2 key arguments. First, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the right to liberty guar...

This study reports on German physicians' views on legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, comparing this with a similar survey of UK doctors. A questionnaire was handed out to attendants of a palliative care and a pain symposium. Complete answers were obtained from 137 physicians. Similar to the UK study, about 30% of the physicians surveyed support euthanasia in case of term...

Nurses who work in HIV/AIDS care often hold conflicting views about appropriate nursing roles in relation to physician-assisted suicide. Regardless of whether the individual nurse supports or opposes physician-assisted suicide, nurses in HIV/AIDS care need to have a broad knowledge base of the legal and ethical issues related to physician-assisted suicide. This article's main purpose is to prov...