The Struggle unto Death

Authors

  • Jasper Doomen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/07

Keywords:

euthanasia, assisted suicide, depression, existential suffering,

Abstract

This article focuses on the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are allowed in certain cases, but there is no consensus with respect to the extent of the situations in which physicians should not be prosecuted. I argue that the individual, and, more specifically, his suffering, should be the focal point, and that the present legislation falls short in this respect; no solution can as yet be offered to individuals whose suffering cannot be resolved through medical means and which cannot be subsumed under the terms the law specifies.

References

R. Young, ""Existential suffering" and voluntary medically assisted dying". Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (2) (2012): pp. 108-109, 108.

M. MacDonald, "The secularization of suicide in England 1660-1800." The Past and Present Society 111 (1986): pp. 50-100, 52, 53.

D. Jones, C. Gastmans, C. Mackellar (eds.), Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: pp. 7-25, 10.

A. Burms and H. de Dijn (eds.), De sacraliteit van leven en dood voor een brede bio-ethiek. Kalmthout: Pelckmans/Zoetermeer: Klement, 2011: pp. 71-87, 86.

House of Representatives, 1993/1994: 23877, no. 1: pp. 4, 5.

H. Buiting, D. Deeg, D. Knol, J. Ziegelmann, R. Pasman, G. Widdershoven and B. Onwuteaka-Philipsen, "Opvattingen van ouderen over levensbe indiging." Huisarts & wetenschap 56 (3) (2013): pp. 102-105, 104.

Dutch Supreme Court, December 24, 2002, NJ 2003, 167, par. 8.2.

M. Parker, "Words and reasons: psychiatry and assisted suicide." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 46 (2) (2012): pp. 80-83, 80.

J. Varelius, "Medical expertise, existential suffering and ending life." Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (2) (2012): pp. 104-107, 106.

Downloads

Published

2018-10-25

How to Cite

Doomen, J. (2018). The Struggle unto Death. Eastern-European Journal of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, 2(1), 24-32. https://doi.org/10.18662/eejmhb/07

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2018): Eastern-European Journal of Medical Humanities and Bioethics

Section

Bioethics

License

Copyright (c) 2018 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

EEJMHB Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND

CC_BY_NC_ND