Gregg A. Kasting – författare

Today's news is full of stories about suicide machines, and physician-assisted death. Can physician-assisted death be accepted as a reasonable ethical choice? Or must a patient's pain and suffering be prolonged in order to preserve life, without regard to the quality of that life? A mind-opening new book from Humana Press, Physician-Assisted Death provides seven articles by leading authorities examining the medical, ethical, legal, and philosophical issues involved in physician-assisted death and scrutinizing the principal arguments for and against it. The analysis includes an examination of public opinion polls and surveys of physicians, an exploration of the impact on both society and the physician patient relationship, and a discussion of the relationship between physician-assisted death and the right to privacy as recognized by the Supreme Court and common law. This important book adds new dimensions to America's fascination with the activities of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and the worldwide interest in physician-assisted death evidenced by its legalization in the Netherlands. This book significantly advances the level of the discussion on this vitally important topic.

Physician-Assisted Death is the eleventh volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews. We, the editors, are pleased with the response to the series over the years and, as a result, are happy to continue into a second decade with the same general purpose and zeal. As in the past, contributors to projected volumes have been asked to summarize the nature of the literature, the prevailing attitudes and arguments, and then to advance the discussion in some way by staking out and arguing forcefully for some basic position on the topic targeted for discussion. For the present volume on Physician-Assisted Death, we felt it wise to enlist the services of a guest editor, Dr. Gregg A. Kasting, a practicing physician with extensive clinical knowledge of the various problems and issues encountered in discussing physician­ assisted death. Dr. Kasting is also our student and just completing a graduate degree in philosophy with a specialty in biomedical ethics here at Georgia State University. Apart from a keen interest in the topic, Dr. Kasting has published good work in the area and has, in our opinion, done an excellent job in taking on the lion''s share of editing this well-balanced and probing set of essays. We hope you will agree that this volume significantly advances the level of discussion on physician-assisted euthanasia. Incidentally, we wish to note that the essays in this volume were all finished and committed to press by January 1993.