The Price of Compassion

This important book includes a compelling selection of original essays on euthanasia and associated legislative and health-care issues, together with important background material for understanding and assessing the arguments of these essays. The book explores a central strand in the debate over medically assisted death, the so called “slippery slope” argument. The focus of the book is on one particularly important aspect of the downward slope of this argument: hastening the death of those individuals who appear to be suffering greatly from their medical condition but are unable to request that we do anything about that suffering because of their diminished mental capacities. Slippery-slope concerns have been raised in many countries, including Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States. This book concentrates most of its attention on the latter two countries.