Aid in Dying: Problems and Paradoxes
At its international conference in September. 1986. the Hemlock Society announced that it would introduce a referendum into California in January, 1988 which would allow a physician to give "aid-in-dying", letha l injections to termina lly ill persons on request. In recent rponths, the Dutch Supreme Court gave wide-ranging approval to thi s sort of action, and it appears that physician-administered letha l injections have become rather common in Holland at the present time, The grave practical problems which would result from legal endorsement of a proposal such as that put forth by the Hemlock Society will be discussed here . Then. the se rious logical dilemmas and paradoxes of lega lized "aid-in-d ying" or voluntary euthanasia will be analyzed .