Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The Policy and Practice of Mercy Killing

International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine #20

by Raphael Cohen-Almagor

This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the pitfalls of policy-making where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are concerned. This book will be most useful in academic forums, and it will appeal to legislatures and judges who take the decisions and make the judgments necessary to protect the fabric of society in the face of technological medicine. In addition, this book is of relevance to medical doctors, ethicists, lawyers working in the field of medical law and ethics, and sociologists who are interested in end-of-life issues and social justice.

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Raphael Cohen-Almagor received his doctorate from the University of Oxford. Raphael is Visiting Academic at UCL Faculty of Laws, Senior Associate Research Fellow, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University. In 2023-2025 he served as President of The Association for Israel Studies (AIS). A peace activist and scholar, Raphael is completing his book Resolving the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: A Critical Study of Peace Mediation, Facilitation and Negotiations between Israel and the PLO (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Until now he has published 19 books and more than 350 articles. Prof. Cohen-Almagor was the co-founder of Israel’s Second Generation to the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Organization, and founder of The University of Haifa Center for Democratic Studies, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute Medical Ethics Think Tank, and The Middle East Study Centre of Hull University. Raphael was the Yitzhak Rabin-Fulbright Visiting Professor at UCLA School of Law and Department of Communication; Visiting Professor at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University; Fellow at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (twice); Distinguished Visiting Professor to the Faculty of Laws, University College London, and The 2023 Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Lund University, Sweden. In 2024–2025, Raphael received the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies Fellowship and, for the second time, the Rockefeller Foundation Center (Bellagio) Fellowship. His work bridges political theory, ethics, and conflict resolution with a lifelong commitment to human rights, peace, social responsibility and democracy.

Raphael Almagor has published two poetry books, Middle Eastern Shores (1993) and Voyages (2007), both in Hebrew. He is now writing three more poetry books in English and in Hebrew.

Reviews

[Raphael Cohen-Almagor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euthanasia in the Netherlands couldn’t be more timely. It addresses an issue that is of growing concern in North America and Europe. Most books on the subject are written from a single perspective: philosophy, medicine or law. This book offers an interdisciplinary, compelling study in medicine, law, religion and ethics. The book covers a wide range of theoretical and practical issues concerning the end of life that doctors, nurses, ethicists, and scientists confront time and again. The book considers the philosophical difficulties inherent in the concepts of medical ethics, but, at the same time, it is not confined strictly to the philosophical realm. The research benefited from interviews conducted in hospitals, research centers and universities over a period of three years in the Netherlands.