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     This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the pitfalls of policy-making where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are concerned. The book will be most useful in academic forums, and it will appeal to legislatures and judges who take the decisions and make the judgments necessary to protect the fabric of society in the face of technological medicine. In addition, this book is of relevance to medical doctors, ethicists, lawyers working in the field of medical law and ethics, and sociologists who are interested in end-of-life issues and social justice....
    

 Euthanasia in the Netherlands
- addresses an issue that is of growing concern in North America and Europe;
- offers an interdisciplinary, compelling study in medicine, law, religion and ethics;
- covers a wide range of theoretical and practical issues concerning the end of life;
- considers the philosophical difficulties inherent in the concepts of medical ethics;
- is not confined strictly to the philosophical realm;
- is based on interviews conducted in hospitals, research centers and universities in the Netherlands;
- will contribute to the ongoing debate about the intricate questions of medical ethics;
- deals with issues that bring scholars and students, politicians, sociologists, jurists and lawyers together.

ix Acknowledgments
xi Introduction
1 Preliminaries: Comparative Law
21 PART A: BACKGROUND
23 Chapter 1: The Three Research Reports of 1990, 1995 and 2001,
and Their Interpretations
35 Chapter 2: The Practice of Euthanasia and the Legal Framework
51 PART B: FIELDWORK
53 Chapter 3: The Methodology
57 PHASE I: THE INTERVIEWS
57 Chapter 4: Why the Netherlands?
65 Chapter 5: Views on the Practice of Euthanasia
75 Chapter 6: Worrisome data
85 Chapter 7: The Remmelink Contention and the British Criticism
91 Chapter 8: Should Physicians Suggest Euthanasia to Their Patients?
103 Chapter 9: Breaches of the Guidelines
123 Chapter 10: On Palliative Care and the Dutch Culture
133 Chapter 11: On Legislation and the Chabot Case
145 PHASE II: INTERVIEWEE`S GENERAL COMMENTS
145 a. Preliminaries
145 b. General Comments
153 PHASE III: UPDATES
153 a. Preliminaries
153 b. On the New Act
161 c. On the Work of the Regional Committees
164 d. Further Concerns
173 PART C: CONCLUSION
175 a. Preliminaries
179 b. Suggestions for Improvement
189 Appendix I: Interviews in the Netherlands (Summer 1999)
191 Appendix II: Interviews and Telephone Conversations in the
Netherlands (Summer 2001)
193 Appendix III: Interviews in the Netherlands (April 2002)
195 - General
205 � Court Cases