Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the DyingThe original publication of Final Exit stunned the nation by offering people with terminal illness a choice on how - and when - to end their suffering. It helped thousands by giving clear instructions to doctors, nurses, and families on how to handle a patient's request for euthanasia. In the wake of court cases and legislative mandates, this revised and updated second edition goes far beyond the original to provide new information about the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and a thoughtful examination of the personal issues involved. It has become the essential source to help loved ones and supportive doctors remain within existing laws and keep a person's dying intimate, private, and dignified. With deep compassion and sensitivity, it spells out why a living will may not be sufficient to have a person's wishes carried out - and what document is a better alternative. It updates where to get proper drugs and exactly how to carry out the quickest, most peaceful way to make a final exit. Finally, it gently talks to a person considering self-deliverance about alternatives, planning, and the means to make every death a "good death" at our time of greatest need. |
Contents
Foreword By Betty Rollin | 15 |
Shopping For The Right Doctor | 24 |
4 | 32 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
alcohol alcuronium Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease analgesic asked assisted suicide Attorney for Health autopsy barbiturate cancer capsules cause CHAPTER coma commit suicide considered court crime Death With Dignity decision deliverance Derek Humphry dextropropoxyphene DGHS disease doctor dosage Durable Power dying person effect ethical euthanasia movement euthanasia society euthanasic happen Hemlock member Hemlock Society hospital hydrochloride ingestion injection intramuscular intravenous intravenous administration Jack Kevorkian Janet Adkins Jean Jean's ketamine Kevorkian lethal dose lethal drugs lives loved medicine method minutes Nontherapeutic Pentobarbital nurse oral orphenadrine overdose pain patient Pentobarbital pentobarbital sodium physician aid-in-dying pills plastic poison possible potassium cyanide potion Power of Attorney prescription propylene glycol prosecution Rectal request respiratory secobarbital sodium Seconal self-deliverance sleep sodium thiopental stomach substance suffering suicide machine suppository terminally ill terminally ill person toxic unbearable voluntary euthanasia vomiting Wake wish