Deconstructing Dignity: A Critique of the Right-to-Die Debate, by Scott Cutler Shershow

April 11, 2014

(The Times Higher Education) – This is a highly topical book, in view of the intense debates taking place in many countries about the possible legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia (for example in Canada and France) or the modification of existing laws (for example in Belgium, where the euthanasia law was recently extended to minors). However, its title is slightly misleading: although Scott Cutler Shershow devotes a lot of attention to suicide, this analysis is insufficiently used as a starting point for discussing assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. The discussion on euthanasia is limited to involuntary euthanasia as practised, for example, by the Nazis.