EUTHANASIA AND LAW IN EUROPE - WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM

This book is a successor to J.Griffiths, A. Bood and H. Weyers, "Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands" (Amsterdam University Press 1998). The first book was widely praised for its thoroughness, clarity, and accuracy. The new book emphasizes recent legal developments and new research, and has been expanded to include a full treatment of Belgium, where since 2002 euthanasia has also become legal. In addition, short descriptions of the legal situation and what is known about actual practice in a number of other European countries (including the UK, Switzerland, France, Spain), written by local specialists, is included. The book strives for as complete and dispassionate a description of the situation as possible. It covers in detail: the substantive law applicable to euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, withholding and withdrawing treatment, use of pain relief in potentially lethal doses, terminal sedation, and termination of life without a request (in particular in the case of newborn babies); the process of legal development that has led to the current state of the law; the system of legal control and its operation in practice; and, the results of empirical research concerning actual medical practice.