Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the European Context

Abstract

Assisted suicide is one of the most controversial topics in clinical ethics. The coexistence of tolerance for assisted suicide and the need to provide suicide prevention creates a tension between underlying values, especially in patient care. Moving within this tension can create ethical uncertainty among healthcare professionals. In Europe, no uniform legal regulation for assisted suicide exists. Rather, there are numerous different regulations, with Switzerland occupying a special position with its liberal provisions. In this chapter, in addition to outlining the different regulations – also in comparison to North America – a cased study on physician assisted suicide from clinical ethics consultation (CEC) illustrates how Clinical Ethics Support (CES) can help clinical staff to tackle the difficult issues involved. The necessity of balancing ethical principles plays an overriding role. National guidelines are instrumental for clarification, but they also reflect normative tensions and can themselves generate uncertainty, as is illustrated by the example of a national guideline issued in Switzerland. The authors consider institutional policies and CES as even more important as long as the societal controversy is not resolved through legislation.