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Annotated Bibliography

The Issue of Assisted Suicide

Abigail Freeman
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
October 25th, 2016

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Annotated Bibliography
Humphry, Derek. Assisted Suicide. Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization.
www.assistedsuicide.org. Accessed 15 Oct. 2016
This website is an informational website founded by the Euthanasia Research &
Guidance organization to educate people on assisted suicide. It includes a list of where it
is legal, the correct terminology for assisted suicide, and what assisted suicide is. This
website gives you multiple articles and videos from Derek Humphry. It also gives you
links to continue your research, such as links to Derek Humphrys books on assisted
suicide. Derek Humphry is a reporter and an author. He has a very personal connection
to assisted suicide; in 1975 he helped his wife take her own life after she had endured a
long and painful battle with bone cancer. This partially makes him biased on this topic. I
feel that even though he may be biased he is a credible source for my topic due to the
numerous amounts of books on this issue he has published. ERGO is an organization that
specializes in Euthanasia and finding legal, painless ways to end the suffering of the
terminally ill. Once again, this source may be partially biased because their goal is to see
euthanasia legalized, but I do feel they are credible. They provide funding to other
organization that looked for euthanasia options, and they are a research organization
globally recognized so they have a good reputation. I plan to use this source in my paper
to list where assisted suicide is legal and the laws about it. I also plan to use this website
to help understand why assisted suicide for the mentally ill is so controversial. Another
reason this website is useful is because it provides me with the proper terms for assisted
suicide, thus Ill be able to look up each new term to find more credible sources.

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Malpas, Phillipa J. and R. Glynn Owens. "Given That Physician-Assisted Dying Is Ethical,
Should It Be Part Of A Doctor's Role?" Mortality 21.4 (2016): 295-304. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
This academic article provides further insight into the issue of assisted suicide and how
its not just about the ethics. The article points on concerns on how assisted suicide
extends the role of a doctor and its other effects on a doctors role. The article first starts
out explaining assisted suicide, and where its legal. Then the article goes on to briefly
discuss the ethical issue of physician assisted death. Next the article begins to discuss its
central topic, the role of the doctor in assisted suicide. In this section, it firsts addresses
the doctors current medical role and obligation; also, how they deliver them. This
section dissects the role of a doctor and points out how assisting a patients death isnt
really out of their job description. The article then goes into how assisted suicide impacts
other professional areas and how it cuts down their use, such as life support machines.
The authors of this article are Phillipa Malpan and R. Owens. Both of these researchers
are psychologists who study psychological medicine and health sciences. I believe this
makes them a credible source because they have a background in this issue and have
done numerous amounts of research on it. Also, an academic article has to be peer
reviewed in order to be published, meaning that other scholars like them have found this
article to be credible. I will use this article in my paper to point out what people perceive
the role of a doctor to be and what it actually is. Also, Ill use this article to help point out
the effects assisted suicide has on other medical areas. This article will also be useful to
help point out why people think physician assisted death is ethically okay.

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Wilson, Jacque. Suicide Tourism To Switzerland Has Doubled Since 2009. CNN Wire 20
Aug. 2014.Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
The news article states that since Switzerland has legalized assisted suicide that their
number of tourists has doubled. The article then goes into detail about where the tourists
came from, the laws about assisted suicide in those countries they came from, and the
laws about assisted suicide in Switzerland. It also describes the method of how these
people committed suicide. The article also briefly mentions how some see assisted
suicide as the wrong answer to a growing problem, end of life care. I find this source to
be credible because the author, Jacque Wilson, appears to have no bias about the topic.
Also, she cites a study done by Institute of Legal Medicine in Zurich, a credible source.
Another reason I find the article to be credible is because it points out the biases some
people may have toward the issue of assisted suicide. This source can be useful to me
because it can help depict how assisted suicide is a growing trend. It also can help me
justify how many people feel there is a need for assisted suicide. Another reason this
source is useful to me is because it gives me more information about assisted suicide laws
in other countries, and provides different perspectives on the issue.

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Worsnop, Richard L. "Assisted Suicide Controversy." CQ Researcher 5 May 1995: 393-416.

Web. 15 Oct. 2016.
The article Assisted Suicide Controversy gives an in depth analysis of the issue of
assisted suicide, beginning with an overview of the issue and controversy. This overview
includes court cases, the controversy behind the issue, and where respected public figures
(i.e. The Vatican) stand on the issue. The article then goes to the background of assisted
suicide. This section includes things such as when the practice started, and how its
developed over the years. The background section also includes key figures in the
assisted suicide movement, those for and against it. It also mentions court cases, the
states stances, and where the issue is currently. This article also includes a chart of the
pros and cons of assisted suicide. At first, I wasnt sure if I could find this source reliable
because I knew nothing about the author. I tried to look him up and couldnt really find
his credentials, but I did find his other works. I now believe the article is reliable because
not only is it a published, peer reviewed work, but the author seems to have multiple
works pertaining to this issue and many others. Also, I was taken to this article through
our schools library, giving some merit to it. I plan to use this article to help in my
introduction by giving background knowledge on the issue. I also plan to use the
information to show the benefits of the court cases on the issue and their rulings. Another
way I can use this article is to include the pros and cons of assisted suicide into my paper.
This article will be very helpful in demonstrating why assisted suicide is such a big
controversy in todays society.