Browsing by Author "Schiffer, Judith Katharina"

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A Comparison of Living Wills in Germany and New Zealand
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2010) Schiffer, Judith Katharina
This paper deals with the living will (also known as advance directive) in Germany and New Zealand. The living will is a document where people can state which medical treatment they would like to have (or not have) in the case of their becoming incompetent. First, this paper points out the situation in Germany. In July 2009, the German legislator passed an Act which now regulates living wills. In New Zealand, living wills are still unregulated. The paper compares both these situations and discusses whether regulation of living wills is necessary or whether it restricts the self-determination of the patients in an inappropriate way. Further, this paper deals with the ethical aspects which arise in the context of the difficult issues about end of life decisions and the handling with these decisions. Afterwards, this paper discusses the legal consequences for doctors if they either follow the patient’s wishes or do not do so. The author concludes that the better way is to regulate living wills because regulation gives patients greater certainty and makes the document more official. In the end, the author proposes some examples of the way and extent the New Zealand Parliament should regulate living wills.
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Copyright Issues of E-Books Limited to Public Libraries
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2010) Schiffer, Judith Katharina
The development of e-books leads to the arising of new copyright issues. Public libraries have noticed the advantages of e-books but nevertheless many of them avoid the danger of the new technology and the copyright problems. Public libraries in the United States of America (United States) were one of the first libraries which started to provide the service of e-books. However, the beginning of the usage was difficult and the first projects failed. Nowadays, the United States public libraries have different possibilities to offer e-books. On one hand the offer of e-books is granted by law and on the other hand the more common way is, however, to have a licensing agreement between the copyright holder and the library. Furthermore, the paper will demonstrate the situation in New Zealand where the offer of e-books just has started. In the whole discussion, this paper will consider the question whether libraries are still necessary in the future, where digital media become the usual way to receive information, and what libraries have to do if they want to persist in the market