Giving Death a Helping Hand: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Public Policy. An International Perspective

From the perspective of patients, physician-assisted suicide is a more unambiguous expression of the patient's autonomous will. From the legislator's perspective it seems less liable to misuse and abuse. And often the availability of assisted suicide, instead of shortening the life of a patient, has proved to prolong it. Public policy has begun to respond to this prospect. Notably in Switzerland and Germany, the attitudes of public bodies towards physician-assisted suicide are in a process ...