Euthanasia and Law in Europe.

• Position: Brief article - Book review

Griffiths, John, Heleen Wyers, & Maurice Adams. Euthanasia and Law in Europe. Oxford: Hart Publishing Ltd., 2008; www.hartpublishingusa.com.

This book is a successor to Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands (Amsterdam University Press, 1998), which was widely praised. The new book emphasizes recent legal developments and new research, and has been expanded to include a full treatment of Belgium, where euthanasia has been legal since 2002. The book also includes descriptions written by local specialists of the legal situation and what is known about actual practice in a number of other European countries including England, Wales, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, and Switzerland.

The book strives for a complete and dispassionate description of euthanasia as practiced in Europe as possible. It covers in detail the substantive law applicable to euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, withholding and withdrawing...