Document Type

Article

Comments

The article will be published in Volume 53 of the American Journal of Comparative Law (Supplement) (2006).

Abstract

This essay, a revised version of the United States report on “Euthanasia” to be presented at the XVII International Congress of Comparative Law, surveys the state of the law, both decisional and statutory, on the permissibility of compassionately motivated actions to terminate human life . It deals with a range of legal categories, suicide, attempted suicide, euthanasia, assisted suicide and the termination of life-sustaining treatment. It highlights the deeply ambivalent attitudes held toward these actions in contemporary America and how this ambivalence has resulted in obscure and artificial distinctions.

Date of Authorship for this Version

December 2005

Keywords

euthanasia, suicide, assisted suicide, end-of-life decisions