Abstract
The debate over physician-assisted suicide is momentous, complex, and contentious. Since ancient times reasonable and informed people of good will have disagreed about the permissibility of suicide, assisted suicide, and physician-assisted suicide and discussed the proper legal, ethical or professional response to people prepared to assist others with suicide or euthanasia. Some Hippocratic writings instructed early physicians about how to help patients who might wish to commit suicide or relieve their suffering through euthanasia. Yet the influential Hippocratic Oath from the same period forbids doctors from participating in such activities. Some philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, offered principled objections to suicide or killing even for merciful reasons, while other early philosophers, most notably the Stoics, defended the rationality of such policies in some cases.
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Kopelman, L.M., De Ville, K.A. (2001). The Contemporary Debate Over Physician-Assisted Suicide. In: Kopelman, L.M., De Ville, K.A. (eds) Physician-Assisted Suicide: What are the Issues?. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 67. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9631-7_1
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