Table Of ContentRegulating the End of Life
Regulating the End of Life: Death Rights is a collection of cutting-edge chapters
on assisted dying and euthanasia, written by leading authors in the field.
Providing an overview of current regulation on assisted dying and eu-
thanasia, both in the UK and internationally, this book also addresses the
associated debates on ethical, moral, and rights issues. It considers whether,
just as there is a right to life, there should also be a right to death, especially
in the context of unbearable human suffering. The unintended consequences
of prohibitions on assisted dying and euthanasia are explored, and the argu-
ment put forward that knowing one can choose when and how one dies can
be life-extending, rather than life-limiting. Key critiques from feminist and
disability studies are addressed. The overarching theme of the collection is
that death is an embodied right which we should be entitled to exercise, with
appropriate safeguards, as and when we choose.
Making a novel contribution to the debate on assisted dying, this interdis-
ciplinary book will appeal to those with relevant interests in law, socio-legal
studies, applied ethics, medical ethics, politics, philosophy, and sociology.
Sue Westwood is a Lecturer in Law at York Law School, University of
York, UK.
Regulating the End of Life
Death Rights
Edited by
Sue Westwood
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
a GlassHouse book
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Sue Westwood; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Sue Westwood to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 9780367333539 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032073293 (pbk)
ISBN: 9780429329739 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429329739
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
For my cousin,
Marion Christmas (née Felton) MBE.
If she sees an injustice, she does something about it, just
like her father taught her.
Contents
List of contributors ix
1 Introducing ‘Regulating the End of Life: Death Rights’ 1
SUE WESTWOOD
PART I
Legal changes and challenges 15
2 Legal change on assisted dying 17
PENNEY LEWIS
3 Contesting death rights: reflections from the courtroom 39
ALEX RUCK KEENE
4 Voluntary assisted dying in Victoria, Australia:
a values-based critique 55
LINDY WILLMOTT, KATRINE DEL VILLAR AND BEN P. WHITE
PART II
Ethics, morals and values 75
5 Assisted dying, ethics and the law: for, against, or
somewhere in between? 77
RICHARD HUXTABLE
6 Euthanasia as life-extension 92
ANTHONY WRIGLEY
viii Contents
7 A pro tanto moral case for assisted death 107
ISRA BLACK
PART III
Rights claims 125
8 Understanding rights in the context of a “right to die” 127
SHARON YOUNG
9 Dying with conscience: the potential application of
Article 9 ECHR to assisted dying 142
ELIZABETH WICKS
10 Euthanasia, biopolitics, and care of the self 156
THOMAS F. TIERNEY
PART IV
Transgressions 171
11 Laughing to death: necrosocialities and
‘right to die’ activism 173
ARI GANDSMAN
12 Choosing death in anticipation of older age-related
suffering: reflections based on a Dutch study 188
ELS VAN WIJNGAARDEN
13 Dying alone: exercising a right or transgressing the rules? 205
GLENYS CASWELL
14 Embodiment, choice and control at the beginning
and ending of life: paradoxes and contradictions.
A provocation 219
SUE WESTWOOD
Index 237
Contributors
Editor
Sue Westwood is a Lecturer at York Law School, University of York, UK.
She is both a social gerontologist and a feminist socio-legal scholar, in-
terested in ageing, diversity, and equality in regulatory contexts. She is
particularly concerned with the quality of health and social care provided
to older people, people with dementia, and those at the end of life.
Contributors
Isra Black is a Lecturer in Health Law at the UCL Faculty of Laws, spe-
cialising in normative jurisprudence, medical treatment decisions, the end
of life, and health and human rights. Isra is an Associate Member of the
Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University. Previously, Isra was a
Lecturer in Law at York Law School, University of York and held postdoc-
toral posts at Karolinska Institutet and Technische Universität München.
Isra has been a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Stock-
holm University and twice a resident researcher at the Fondation Bro-
cher, Switzerland. Isra received his PhD for research on assisted death from
the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics and Dickson Poon School of Law,
King’s College London.
Glenys Caswell is a sociologist whose research interests centre on the social
management of dying and death, with a particular interest in the notion
of dying alone and the ways in which such deaths transgress social norms.
Projects on this topic include the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Exploring
the social management of lone deaths’ and publications include ‘For some
people dying alone is not such a bad thing – here’s why’, The Conversa-
tion, January 2018, https:// theconversation.com/for-some-people-dying-
alone-is-not-such-a-bad-thing-heres-why-90034.
Katrine Del Villar is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and member of the
Australian Centre for Health Law Research in the Faculty of Business
and Law at the Queensland University of Technology, from which she
