Regulating the End of Life

Regulating the End of Life: Death Rights is a collection of cutting-edge chapters on assisted dying and euthanasia, written by leading authors in the field. Providing an overview of current regulation on assisted dying and euthanasia, both in the UK and internationally, this book also addresses the associated debates on ethical, moral, and rights issues. It considers whether, just as there is a right to life, there should also be a right to death, especially in the context of unbearable human suffering. The unintended consequences of prohibitions on assisted dying and euthanasia are explored, and the argument put forward that knowing one can choose when and how one dies can be life-extending, rather than life-limiting. Key critiques from feminist and disability studies are addressed. The overarching theme of the collection is that death is an embodied right which we should be entitled to exercise, with appropriate safeguards, as and when we choose. Making a novel contribution to the debate on assisted dying, this interdisciplinary book will appeal to those with relevant interests in law, socio-legal studies, applied ethics, medical ethics, politics, philosophy, and sociology.

Sue Westwood is a Lecturer in Law at York Law School, University of York, UK.

Introduction 1. Introducing 'Death Rights' (Sue Westwood) Part I. Legal changes and challenges 2. Legal change on assisted dying (Penney Lewis) 3. Contesting death rights: Reflections from the Courtroom (Alex Ruck Keane) 4. Voluntary Assisted Dying in Victoria, Australia: A Values-Based Critique (Lindy Willmott, Katrine Del Villar and Ben White) Part II: Ethics, morals and values 5. Assisted dying, ethics and the law: For, against, or somewhere in between? (Richard Huxtable) 6. Euthanasia as life-extension (Anthony Wrigley) 7. A pro tanto moral case for assisted death (Isra Black) Part III: Rights claims 8. Understanding rights in the context of a 'right to die' (Sharon Young) 9. Dying with Conscience: The Potential Application of Article 9 ECHR to Assisted Dying (Elizabeth Wicks) 10. Euthanasia, Biopolitics, and Care of the Self (Thomas Tierney) Part IV: Transgressions 11. Laughing to death: Necrosocialities and 'right to die' activism (Ari Gandsman) 12. Choosing death in anticipation of older age-related suffering: Reflections based on a Dutch study (Els van Wijngaarden) 13. Dying alone: Exercising a right or transgressing the rules? (Glenys Caswell) 14. Embodiment, choice and control at the beginning and ending of life: Paradoxes and contradictions. A provocation (Sue Westwood)