International Perspectives on End-of-Life Law Reform: Politics, Persuasion and Persistence

Description

Much has been written about whether end-of-life law should change and what that law should be. However, the barriers and facilitators of such changes - law reform perspectives - have been virtually ignored. Why do so many attempts to change the law fail but others are successful? International Perspectives on End-of-Life Law Reform aims to address this question by drawing on ten case studies of end-of-life law reform from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. Written by leading end-of-life scholars, the book's chapters blend perspectives from law, medicine, bioethics and sociology to examine sustained reform efforts to permit assisted dying and change the law about withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Findings from this book shed light not only on changing end-of-life law, but provide insight more generally into how and why law reform succeeds in complex and controversial social policy areas.

Ben P. White is a Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation in the Australian Centre for Health Law Research in the School of Law, Queensland University of Technology. His research expertise focuses on end-of-life decision-making, and as a former law reform commissioner, he has had a long-standing involvement in law reform. Lindy Willmott is a Professor of Law in the Australian Centre for Health Law Research (of which she was a foundation Director) in the School of Law, Queensland University of Technology. She has extensively researched in the end-of-life field, and has had broad practical experience as a law reform commissioner.

'Overall, the book aims to support reform efforts to improve end-of-life law and practice. Considering the increasing number of jurisdictions regulating end-of-life (especially assisted dying), this is a book on an aspect of the debate (why and how reform happens) often not given sufficient importance. While indeed 'all politics is local' (p. 266), the motivations for such legislation are shared, and experience from other jurisdictions is crucial to the creation of a good law. An important piece of work.' Nataly Papadopoulou, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK