by Sissela Bok
First published 2014
The medical profession faces its most challenging ethical dilemma when patients request help to die. This book presents a structured debate between leading thinkers on both sides of physician-assisted suicide. Gerald Dworkin and R. G. Frey make the case that doctors should be permitted to provide patients with the knowledge and means to end their own lives under specific circumstances. They argue for both moral acceptance and legal authorization of this practice. Sissela Bok, author of "Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private," counters with warnings about serious dangers that legalization would create. She contends that allowing physician-assisted suicide fails to address the real needs of dying patients, particularly in healthcare systems that lack universal coverage. The book examines all relevant moral and practical questions surrounding this controversy, giving readers the framework to form their own positions on decisions they may eventually confront.
Genres: non-fiction, medical-ethics, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: informed-consent
Kindle Edition · Cambridge University Press
Content warnings: death, medical-trauma