To Die or Not to Die : Cross Disciplinary, Cultural, and Legal Perspectives on the Right to Choose Death

Dramatic advances in medical technology make it possible to keep an individual alive well after life would otherwise be untenable. These medical advances raise complex and disturbing questions about the appropriateness of allowing or even helping a person to die. This provocative new book provides guidelines for dealing with the sensitive legal and ethical issues surrounding an individual's right to die. Designed to give a global perspective on these contemporary issues, To Die or Not to Die? integrates the ideas and experiences of ten authorities from different disciplines, cultures, and legal systems, recognizing that no single discipline offers an insight that is broad enough to solve the problems caused by rapidly changing medical technology. The book discusses the issues in a comprehensive manner integrating the attitudes of various cultures, and investigates the approaches and solutions of several different legal systems.

Challenging many commonly held views on the issues surrounding an individual's right to die, this book builds a new foundation for thinking or rethinking these controversial questions. It allows the reader to consider new and diverse perspectives side by side for the first time. Valuable appendices supply references, statutes, judicial decisions, and important forms for more detailed study. To Die or Not to Die? will prove stimulating reading for professionals in medicine, nursing, theology, law, public health and the disciplines of philosophy, ethics, psychology, and sociology.

ARTHUR S. BERGER is Director of the International Institute for the Study of Death and President of the Survival Research Foundation. He was the recipient of two grants for research in experimental thanatology, has written more than 30 papers and four books on thanatology and parapsychology, and has edited and contributed to other books.

JOYCE BERGER is Administrator of the International Institute for the Study of Death. She is co-author of the Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research and co-editor of Perspectives on Death and Dying.