Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: "Sane" and "Insane" Suicide: The Law of Competence
Chapter 2: The Right to Die, Involuntary Commitment, and the
Constitution
Chapter 3: Assisted Suicide in the States
Chapter 4: International Perspectives in Assisted Suicide and
Euthanasia
Chapter 5: Assisted Suicide and the Medical Profession
Chapter 6: Mental Health Professionals and Suicide
Chapter 7: Types of Suicide
Chapter 8: Discrimination on the Basis of Suicidality
Chapter 9: Prevention and Treatment: Policy and Legal Barriers
Chapter 10: Conclusion: People with Psychiatric Diagnoses and
Assisted Suicide
Appendix A: Model Statutes
Appendix B: Survey of People Who Have Attempted Suicide
1. Survey: Experiences with Suicide
2. Final Results of Survey
Table of Cases
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Susan Stefan is the author of four books on law and policy relating to people with psychiatric disabilities and has worked nationally and internationally as a consultant on systems reform issues. She litigated class actions in state and federal court, has served as an expert witness, and was a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law.
"Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws is an immensely important
contribution to the professional literature and, we should hope,
the public policy making process, regarding suicide. Beyond that,
it earns recognition as a valuable primer on the law and ethics of
end-of-life medical decision making and delivery generally."
--Marshall B. Kapp, Care Management Journals
"This is a landmark book written about thorny issues pertaining to
suicide, mental health care, and mental health-related laws and
policies within contemporary culture. Susan Stefan has an uncanny
ability to point out when the 'emperor has no clothes' as she
poignantly explores suicidal human suffering in the face of
existing conventional mental health care that too often 'treats'
suicidal people through control, coercion, and shame that is
fostered and
supported by existing policies and laws. This important book makes
one think deeply about the topic of suicide, human suffering, truly
compassionate care, personal liberty, and mental health-related
policy
and laws in novel and important ways."
--David A. Jobes, PhD, Professor of Psychology, The Catholic
University of America
"Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws is a nuanced, subtle, and
thoroughgoing look at suicide and assisted suicide...Stefan debunks
the idea that all suicide is a symptom of mental illness enacted by
incompetent people. Stefan also proposes recommendations as to how
we should respond to a suicidal person and the phenomenon of
suicide generally. An important theme running through this book is
that there is so much more we could be doing to help the
patient want to live. All in all, a must-read for anyone interested
in the phenomenon of suicide and assisted suicide--a masterful
account."
--Elyn Saks, JD, PhD, Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology,
and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, USC Gould School of
Law
"A ground-breaking, brilliant, indeed courageous book ... a
compassionate and an intelligent book, written by a researcher who
listens intently... There is much in this book that makes me want
to stand up and cheer."
--Bonnie Burstow, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of
Toronto, antipsychiatry activist, feminist therapist, and prolific
author
"There is no way to do justice to all of the groundbreaking
analysis and novel policy and practice solutions proposed in this
book. It should be required reading for everyone in the fields of
mental health and suicidology... One can only hope that the ideas
in this book will reach policymakers, mental health professionals,
employers, university administrators, and advocates who are in a
position to help change our laws and practices to truly support
suicidal
people to find reasons to live again."
--Leah Harris, The Huffington Post
"Stefan's book is valuable if for no other reason than its clear
and comprehensive overview and critical evaluation of the law
relating to suicide in general, decision-making competence, refusal
of life-sustaining treatment, and assisted death. But it is much
more than that.... her thought-provoking and carefully argued book,
Rational Suicide, Irrational Laws: Examining Current Approaches to
Suicide in Policy and Law ... documents how the law and
psychiatric practice fail to respect the autonomy rights of
suicidal individuals and to offer them effective treatment."
--Franklin G. Miller, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Ethics in
Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, American Journal of
Psychiatry
Featured in The News & Observer
"Stefan, a legal scholar, adopts the role of an investigative
journalist to interview persons who have attempted suicide. She
draws on these interviews as a basis from which to reflect on the
ways in which law and public policy respond to the question of
suicide, with the aim of providing a unified approach to the
treatment of suicidal people...It is well argued, extensively
footnoted, and provides a compelling case for the reforms that
Stefan argues for,
including reducing coercive interventions, protecting mental health
professionals from legal liability, and refocusing the contemporary
understanding of suicidal people away from the current emphasis
on
treating their suicidal acts as symptoms of mental illness." --J.S.
Taylor, The College of New Jersey
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