Recent advances in medical technology have greatly increased physicians' ability to prolong life and have provoked widespread public concern regarding the rights of individuals to refuse treatment. The Right to Die analyzes the right to die as a controversial social and political issue and examines its development in contemporary public policy.

In this collection of essays by one of the foremost philosophers writing about issues of death and dying, the dilemmas raised by contemporary medicine concerning the way we die are explored. The volume focuses on the issues of withdrawing and withholding care, euthanasia, and suicide. Battin has written an extensive introduction which identifies the principle ethical issues and surveys the current political and social ferment over right-to-die issues. The essays range from treatments of the moral and philosophical issues to essays in practice and policy.

Ethical and legal issues concerning physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are very much on the public agenda in many jurisdictions. In this timely book L.W. Sumner addresses these issues within the wider context of palliative care for patients in the dying process. His ethical conclusion is that a bright line between assisted death and other widely accepted end-of-life practices, including the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, pain control through high-dose opioids, and terminal sedation, cannot be justified. In the course of the ethical argument many familiar themes are given careful and thorough treatment: conceptions of death, the badness of death, the wrongness of killing, informed consent and refusal, the ethics of suicide, cause of death, the double effect, the sanctity of life, the "active/passive" distinction, advance directives, and nonvoluntary euthanasia. The legal discussion opens with a survey of some prominent prohibitionist and regulatory regimes and then outlines a model regulatory policy for assisted death. Sumner concludes by defending this policy against a wide range of common objections, including those which appeal to slippery slopes or the possibility of abuse, and by asking how the transition to a regulatory regime might be managed in three common law prohibitionist jurisdictions.

Voluntary Euthanasia investigates the complex and controversial issue of active voluntary euthanasia, presenting the legal position in a clear, comprehensive fashion. It critically examines the criminal law prohibition of medically administered active voluntary euthanasia in common law jurisdictions and looks at the situation in practice. The evidence of patient demands for active euthanasia and the willingness of some doctors to respond to patients requests is explored, and an argument for reform of the law is made with reference to the position in the Netherlands where active voluntary euthanasia is now openly practised.

So how should we spend our time on Earth? Don Piper, the Minister of Hope who spent 90 minutes in Heaven, brings us God's message.
Hope for the here and now from the multimillion-selling author of "90 Minutes in Heaven."
Millions believe in Heaven. Don Piper's been there. He was pronounced dead after a car accident on January 18, 1989. Ninety minutes later, Piper came back to life with an extraordinary story. His "90 Minutes in Heaven" has strengthened the faith of countless people.
When Piper returned to this life, he had a long road back to health, dealing with painful treatments and physical disabilities-the "new normal," as Piper calls it. Still, he had been transformed spiritually and this allowed him not only to cope with his suffering, but to transcend it. Piper found purpose in his pain, he found the message in the mess, and so can anyone else who embraces God's grace in the here and now-as well as the Hereafter.
Don Piper did not return from Heaven alone-he brought the gift of hope back with him. Those who read "Heaven Is Real" can use what he learned to live the lives God has called them to live.