To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life
Do you have the right to take your own life? Should we allow physician's to help hasten their patients death? In this book the answer is yes. Proponents argue that especially in cases of extraordinary pain and imminent death patients should be allowed to aggressively manage the pain even if it shortens life or leads to death. Opponents worry that unscrupulous people will use the law as a loophole to murder and that suicidal people, who might presumably be cured of their desire to die, might find a way to take advantage of the system. The doctors who wrote this volume argue that the ethical requirements are to let people choose how they will die.
Why this is progressive/liberal: An example of the right/left dimension of the right-do-die movement occurred in the middle of the George W. Bush presidency. The Bush administration opposed Oregon's Death with Dignity act. When the case came before the Supreme Court several state Democrats wrote the court in defense of the law and the liberal/moderate wing of the court found in favor of Oregon. Scalia, Thomas and Roberts dissented.
Buy the Kindle version: To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life
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