My aim with this paper is to focus on how the law could be improved to better respect and protect patients seeking assistance at the end-of-life, as well as protecting the doctors who assist them. This paper takes as its starting premise the fact that there are currently a number of deficiencies in the law relating to physician-assisted death. I want to argue that these deficiencies have the cumulative effect of rendering the operation of the law inconsistent, discriminatory and hypocritical, and that as a consequence of this dysfunctionality, the law is brought into disrepute. In exploring ways in which the law could be improved, I will be examining different legislative models for change: direct assistance at the request of a patient, based on the Netherlands model where the doctor administers the lethal dose, as well as the Oregon model of physician-assisted suicide where the doctor provides the lethal dose but the patient self-administers it, and I will be looking at the pros and cons of both of these models. Essentially, I argue that more functional, objectively realistic and transparent laws are needed to deal with end-of-life concerns.

Item Type:	Non Refereed Article
Research Division:	Law and Legal Studies
Research Group:	Other Law and Legal Studies
Research Field:	Law and Legal Studies not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Justice and the Law
Objective Field:	Justice and the Law not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Otlowski, MFA (Professor Margaret Otlowski)
ID Code:	75447
Year Published:	2011
Deposited By:	Law
Deposited On:	2012-01-30
Last Modified:	2012-01-30
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