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Freedom to die: people, politics and the right to die movement. By DEREK HUMPHRY cSL MARY CLEMENT. NeW York: St Martin's Press, 1998, 388 pp., $24.95 ISBN 0-312-19415-3
Euthanasia and law in the Netherlands. By JOHN GRIFFITHS, ALEX BOOD and HELEN WEYERS. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998, distributed in North America by the University of Michigan Press, 381 pp., $37.50, ISBN 90 5356 275 3
A rose is a rose by any name. So too is the debate regarding the related concepts and practices of medical euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the `right-todie,' medical-aid-in-dying, and other terms used to describe acts (or omissions) within the general category of deliberately hastening the death of a patient who is not only consenting, but requesting, that the medical professional (usually a doctor) end his or her life. Thorny indeed.
These two books are social histories of the American (Humphry/Clement) and Dutch (Griffiths/Bood/Weyers) movements regarding the decriminalization, legalization and regulation of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Treasure troves of well documented (and sometimes not easily available) detail, these volumes should perhaps be viewed as reference books, rather than cover-tocover reading (although both are written in an accessible style which would allow for that as well). This shared strength is probably...