9781422281338

Jacques Chirac, French President from 1995 to 2007, refused an appeal by Marie Humbert in 2002 to allow her son, Vincent, to have the legal right to end his life. Vincent had lost the use of his limbs as well as his sight, speech, smell, and taste in a car crash. Before his passing away in 2003, he wrote the book I Ask the Right to Die with the use of his right thumb, expressing his wish to die legally.

The Double Effect The double effect, or dual effect, describes how an action can have more than one effect, both good and bad. In particular, it is used to describe the practice of giving a dying patient high doses of certain powerful, painkilling drugs to control pain and ease suffering. All drugs have side effects, and in trying to con- trol a patient’s pain or another symptom, there is the chance

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Euthanasia