The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by
Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution
and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Duty- to-Die?" In
1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic
written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor
Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its
undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Re- views sought to initiate an
in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a
general call for papers on the topic "Is There a Duty to Die?" The
twelve articles in this volume represent the ultimate fruits of those
initiatives. The first seven essays in this text are sympathetic to the
claim that there is a duty to die. They argue either: (a) that some form
of a duty to die exists, or (b) that arguments that might be offered
against the existence of such a duty cannot be sustained. By way of
contrast, the last five articles in the text are critical of duty-to-die
claims: The authors of the first three of these five articles attempt to
cast doubt on the existence of a duty to die, and the writers of the
last two essays argue that if such a duty did exist, severe problems
would arise when- ever we attempted to implement it.