Death talk : the case against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide / Margaret Somerville.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Somerville, Margaret, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Euthanasia.

Assisted suicide.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (471 p.)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Montréal, Québec : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Death Talk asks why, when our society has rejected euthanasia for over two thousand years, are we now considering legalizing it? Has euthanasia been promoted by deliberately confusing it with other ethically acceptable acts? What is the relation between pain relief treatments that could shorten life and euthanasia? How do journalistic values and media ethics affect the public's perception of euthanasia? What impact would the legalization of euthanasia have on concepts of human rights, human responsibilities, and human ethics? Can we imagine teaching young physicians how to put their patients to death? There are vast ethical, legal, and social differences between natural death and euthanasia. In Death Talk, Margaret Somerville argues that legalizing euthanasia would cause irreparable harm to society's value of respect for human life, which in secular societies is carried primarily by the institutions of law and medicine. Death has always been a central focus of the discussion that we engage in as individuals and as a society in searching for meaning in life. Moreover, we accommodate the inevitable reality of death into the living of our lives by discussing it, that is, through "death talk." Until the last twenty years this discussion occurred largely as part of the practice of organized religion. Today, in industrialized western societies, the euthanasia debate provides a context for such discussion and is part of the search for a new societal-cultural paradigm. Seeking to balance the "death talk" articulated in the euthanasia debate with "life talk," Somerville identifies the very serious harms for individuals and society that would result from accepting euthanasia. A sense of the unfolding euthanasia debate is captured through the inclusion of Somerville's responses to or commentaries on several other authors' contributions.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Preface to the Second Edition

Part One Euthanasia and the Search for a New Societal Paradigm

1 Euthanasia, Genetics, Reproductive Technologies, and the Search for a New Societal Paradigm

Part Two Evolution of the Euthanasia Controversy

2 Should the Grandparents Die? Allocation of Medical Resources with an Aging Population

3 The Song of Death: The Lyrics of Euthanasia

4 "Death Talk" in Canada: The Rodriguez Case

5 The Definition of Euthanasia: A Paradoxical Partnership

6 Legalizing Euthanasia: Why Now?

7 Euthanasia by Confusion

8 (a) Guidelines for Legalized Euthanasia in Canada: A Proposal

8 (b) Guidelines for Legalized Euthanasia in Canada: A Rejection of Nielsen's Proposal

8 (c) Guidelines for Legalized Euthanasia in Canada: A Response to Somerville's Rejection

8 (d) Guidelines for Legalized Euthanasia in Canada: A Response to Nielsen's Response

9 Executing Euthanasia: A Review Essay

10 Why Aren't Physicians Interested in the Ethics and Law of Euthanasia? A Conference Report

Part Three Untreated Pain and Euthanasia

11 Pain and Suffering at Interfaces of Medicine and Law

12 Ethics, Law, and Palliative Treatment and Care: The Dying Elderly Person

13 The Relief of Suffering: Human Rights and Medicine

14 Death of Pain: Pain, Suffering, and Ethics

Part Four Respect for Dying People and Euthanasia

15 (a) Death at a New York Hospital

15 (b) Searching for the Governing Values, Policies, and Attitudes: Commentary on "Death at a New York Hospital"

16 (a) Human Dignity and Disease, Disability, Suffering: A Philosophical Contribution to the Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Debate 16 (b) Unpacking the Concept of Human Dignity in Human(e) Death: Comments on "Human Dignity and Disease, Disability, and Suffering"

17 (a) Prothanasia: Personal Fulfilment and Readiness to Die

17 (b) Taming the Tiger: Reflections on "Prothanasia: Personal Fulfilment and Readiness to Die"

18 Debating A Gentle Death: A Review Essay

Part Five Euthanasia in the "Public Square"

19 Euthanasia in the Media: Journalists" Values, Media Ethics, and "Public Square" Messages

20 Euthanasia and the Death Penalty

Part Six Ethical and Legal "Tools" in the Euthanasia Debate

21 Labels versus Contents: Variance between Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Law in Concepts Governing Decision-Making

22 Human Rights and Human Ethics: Health and Health Care

Epilogue

Notes

Permissions and Places of Publication

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed May 1, 2014).

ISBN:

9780773589162

0773589163

9780773589155

0773589155

OCLC:

879870277