Customer Reviews

Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die

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This newly revised and updated edition of Forced Exit provides a gripping overview and analysis of the assisted suicide and euthanasia movement and the threat it poses to human dignity and human equality. Author Wesley J. Smith lays out the chilling intellectual underpinnings of a movement that asserts there is such a thing as human life unworthy of life--and that other humans or "experts" should be called upon to determine whose life satisfies the criteria for continued existence. Smith gives readers clear and straightforward analysis of the important issues at stake and the implications for the most vulnerable among us.

Smith persuasively shows that he basic ideals that the assisted suicide/euthanasia movement hope to carve into federal and state laws through litigation and legislation are detrimental to the equality-of-life ethic that has long been recognized in this nation. In Forced Exit, Smith gives readers a strong defense of that important ethic. That ethic makes clear that the elderly, the sick and the disabled have as much importance, dignity, and worth than the young and the healthy.

Importantly, Smith provides solutions to the dilemmas faced by patients at life's so-called margins. Steps must be taken to educate doctors about how to recognize depression in patients and that depression must be treated. Current medical practice must place greater emphasis upon pain control, since palliative measures can significantly reduce--if not eliminate--the physical pain felt by many patients who have serious injuries or illness.

The false notion that assisted suicide somehow furthers patient autonomy is exploded by Smith. Through principled analysis and through countless concrete case studies, he demonstrates that the wishes of the sick, elderly, and disabled are all too often given short or ignored when it comes to important medical decisions. Smith describes the crucial distinction between the right to refuse unwanted life-saving medical procedures and the so-called "right to die"--proactive measures specifically intended to end life. Also, Smith deftly explains how administering food and water to patients is separate and distinct from medical measures.

Forced Exit receives my strongest recommendation.

Some books on current topics go out of date quickly with the rapid changes of our world. Wesley Smith's book is not one of those books. It continues to be an excellent analysis of the problems associated with the promotion of euthanasia as a solution for those who are suffering. Smith identifies the basic underlying problem with euthanasia that leads to the negative effects it has had in the places it has been practiced and will have if it is used more widely. Euthanasia in all of its forms, including physician assisted suicide, entails someone making a decision that it is best that another person's life be ended. That involves a decision that the life of the person in question is a life that is not worth living. All the moral progress that has been made to respect the value of the lives of those who have been disrespected or oppressed, whether that be slaves, ethnic minorities, women, the people of South Africa oppressed by apartheid, or the disabled, depends on an understanding of the equal intrinsic value of every human being. When we say that we can judge that another person's life is not worth living we are saying that their life is no longer of value and they are no longer of value. Smith shows how that leads to things that we should never want to go back to. This book will be worth reading for years to come.

Stephen Phillips MD, MA Bioethics