Angels of Death

An exploration of the hidden world of illicit physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Through the frank and often troubling first-hand accounts of health professionals who have been involved in assisted death, it records this secret but real area of medical and nursing practice. Through face-to-face interviews with these "angels of death", Roger S. Magnusson explores the social practices, relationships and networks that constitute "underground" euthanasia. How is assisted death actually practised within health care settings? What are the issues that surround the making of such a momentous decision? How do health care workers justify their attitudes and actions in this area? This volume aims to offer detailed answers to these questions and many others. The doctors, nurses and therapists who were interviewed pseudonymously for this study work in the HIV/AIDS communities in the United States and Australia. Their perspectives and practices, attitudes and feelings, should illuminate the assisted death debate and expose a variety of disturbing issues, including the reality of "botched attempts", euthanasia without consent, and unduly hasty measures to bring about death.