Margaret Battin, "Euthanasia: The Way We Do It, the Way They Do It," in 
May, Applied Ethics, pp. 602-615.
 	
	Margaret Battin compares practices in different countries and 
concludes that physician-assisted suicide--a practice that is not presently 
condoned in the U.S., in Germany, or the Netherlands--is defensible in the 
U.S.
	The cultural histories of different countries help to explain different 
practices regarding the termination of life. Germany has not outlawed a 
practice of assisted suicide when the assistance is given by private parties 
outside the medical profession. Physicians are strictly limited in what they 
may do, a limitation that is emerged after the Nuremberg trials. In the 
Netherlands physician-assisted active euthanasia is permitted. In the 
Netherlands, physicians tend to know their patients who generally are part of 
a family practice. The U.S. allows neither assisted suicide nor physician-
assisted euthanasia. Fear of litigation in the U.S. prompts physicians to avoid 
assisting in either the practice of suicide or euthanasia.
	Battin concludes that in the United States physician-assisted suicide 
would be consistent with respect for patient autonomy. She argues on 
libertarian grounds, and she characterizes the libertarian decision-maker in 
the U.S. as independent, confrontational, self-analyzing, do-it-yourself, and 
authority-resisting.