Foreword -- Universal Human Rights and End-of-Life Care -- Advance Health Care Directives under European Law and European Biolaw -- Advance Directives Regulation in Italy: Between Consent and Legal Rules -- Patient’s autonomy according to German Law -- “Killing me softly”: new questions about therapeutic self-determination in the Italian society and old answers from the Criminal Code -- The German Law on Euthanasia: the legal basics and the actual debate -- Access to Palliative Care in the Italian Legal System -- Legal Rules on Palliative Care under German Law -- End of Life Care and the Economics of Living Wills -- Appendix.

What is the situation of people who are unable to make decisions due to a physical or mental change? This book gives impulses and answers to many ethical, economical and mainly legal questions which arise and are associated with the end of life. A universal human rights approach and the analysis of the relevant European law are put in front of the presentation of the national legal situations in Italy and Germany. The most topical and controversial issues concerning advance care planning are presented as well as a transnational economic analysis on the effects of advance care planning.