Part I: David Orentlicher, Part II: Robert Young

In the first part of the following two-part viewpoint, David Orentlicher contends that the potential for doctors to abuse physician-assisted suicide can be reduced by requiring patients who choose suicide to self-administer the fatal dose of medication. Orentlicher is a professor of law and former director of the American Medical Association’s Division of Medical Ethics. In the second part, Robert Young, a professor of philosophy at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues that the Dutch policy of permitting voluntary euthanasia has not been widely abused, as many critics have charged.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Orentlicher’s view, what types of specialists should consult with the patient before a request for physician-assisted suicide is granted?
2. In Young’s opinion...