Abstract
Contemporary society and modern medicine face difficult policy decisions. This is illustrated most recently in the Voluntary Euthanasia Act of 1969, submitted for consideration in the British Parliament. The purpose of that act is to provide for “the administration of euthanasia to persons who request it and who are suffering from an irremediable condition” (Downing, 1971) and to enable such persons to make such a request in advance. For the purposes of that act, euthanasia means “the painless inducement of death” to be administered by a physician, i.e., “a registered medical practitioner.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alexander, L. 1949. Medical science under dictatorship. New Engl. J. Med. 241:39–47. For a thorough study of the “edge of the wedge” argument as it applies to legalizing voluntary euthanasia, see Sissela Bok, “Voluntary Euthanasia,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis.
Barrington, M. R. Apologia for suicide. In Downing, op. cit.
Downing, A. B., ed. 1971. Euthanasia and the Right to Death. New York, Humanities Press.
Dyck, A. J. Religious Views and U.S. Population Policy (prepared for the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future and available at the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, Hastings-OnHudson, N.Y.). See also Population policies and ethical acceptability. In Rapid Population Growth: Consequences and Policy Implications. Roger Revelle et al., eds. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1971. See also 1972. Perplexities for the would-be-liberal in abortion, J. Rep. Med. 8(6):351–4.
Dyck, A. J. 1965. Questions for the global conscience. Psych. Today. 2 (4): 38–42.
Editorial. 1970. A new ethic for medicine and society. Cal. Med. 113: 67–68.
Fletcher, G. P. Prolonging life: some legal considerations. In Downing, op. cit.
Fletcher, J. The patient’s right to die. In Downing, op. cit.
Genesis, Chapter 3, The Holy Bible. 1952. Revised Standard Version. New York, Thomas Nelson and Sons.
Jakobovits, I. 1967. Jewish Medical Ethics. New York, Bloch Publishing Co.
Kamisar, Y. Euthanasia legislation: some non-religious objections. In Downing, op. cit.
Lasagna, L. 1970. The prognosis of death. In The Dying Patient. O. G. Brim et al., eds. New York, Russell Sage Foundation. Pages 80–81.
Mendenhall, G. E. 1955. Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Pittsburgh, Biblical Colloquium.
Morison, R. S. 1971. Chairman’s introduction. In Early Diagnosis of Human Genetic Defects. M. Harris, ed. H. E. W. Publication No. ( NIH ) 72–25. Page 9.
Niebuhr, H. R. 1963. The Responsible Self. New York, Harper & Row.
Ramsey, P. 1970. The Patient as a Person. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Ross, W. D. 1930. The Right and the Good. Clarendon, Oxford University Press. (See pp. 19–21 for an explanation and a list of prima facie duties.)
Smith, H. L. 1970. Ethics and the New Medicine. New York, Abingdon Press.
Tillich, P. 1952. The Courage To Be. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1973 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dyck, A.J. (1973). An Alternative to the Ethic of Euthanasia. In: Williams, R.H. (eds) To Live and To Die: When, Why, and How. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4369-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4369-2_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-90097-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4369-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive