A Model Statute to Authorize and Regulate Physician-Assisted Suicide w
as published in 1996, This article describes the Act and some of its b
ackground and effects in detail, showing that it goes further than at
first appears. Specifically, the article discusses the background and
basic effect of the Act, the principal provisions of the Act and their
effects, the morality and jurisprudence of the Act, the argument from
autonomy, and the argument from utility. The authors conclude that by
ignoring the moral traditions of Western culture, and focusing only o
n the ethics and anthropology of autonomy and utility, the drafters of
the Act justify the dehumanization of the very people the Act is supp
osed to benefit.