Angels of Death
Exploring the Euthanasia Underground
Angels of Death provides a window into the 'euthanasia underground'--a secret part of medicine and nursing that few professionals will publicly acknowledge.
Opinion
'In Magnusson, this difficult ethical issue has found reverence and clarity and a gentle chronicler with heart and good sense.' (Tom Dusevic, Time, 25 March 2002)
'Roger Magnusson has written an extraordinary book that opens up to the reader the world in which decisions about dying are linked to the life narrative of all involved in them -- be they patients, nurses, community workers, relatives or doctors.' (Deborah Zion, The Age, 16 February 2002)
About this Title
Public discussion of euthanasia and assisted suicide is growing. In Australia as elsewhere the debate is difficult, contentious and confronting, and hampered by the secrecy that necessarily surrounds illegal practice. Most people simply have no way of knowing how, and how often, medically assisted death actually occurs.
Roger Magnusson presents, for the first time, detailed first-hand accounts by doctors, nurses, therapists and other health professionals who have been participants in assisted death. All have been intimately involved in caring for people with AIDS, both in Australia and in California. He places these ambivalent, self-incriminating accounts within the broader context of the right-to-die debate and the challenges of palliative care.
The frankness of the health workers and the richness of their collected evidence set this book apart. From within a culture of deception they speak knowingly and movingly of the merciful release of a peaceful death, while acknowledging the reality of 'botched attempts', euthanasia without consent, precipitative euthanasia, lack of accountability and professional distance, and many other disturbing issues.
Angels of Death provides a window into the 'euthanasia underground'--a secret part of medicine and nursing that few professionals will publicly acknowledge. It brings a sense of urgency and precision to public debate, and equips us all to think more independently about these crucial issues.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Who would do such a thing?
2 Doctors who kill
3 Voices in the euthanasia debate
4 Sanctity of life: the slow death of an idea?
5 Exploring the meaning of suicide talk
6 Responding to euthanasia requests (with P. H. Ballis)
7 People, practices and potions
8 Doing fieldwork in the euthanasia underground (with P. H. Ballis)
9 The underground community
10 Disturbing issues
11 More disturbing issues
12 De-mystifying euthanasia practice
13 Euthanasia policy: hard questions, hard consequences
Appendix: The recruitment strategy and methodology adopted in this study
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Dr Roger Magnusson is senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney and co-ordinator of the Faculty's postgraduate Health Law Program.
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