Publisher description
This text asks why, when our society has rejected euthanasia for over 2000
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 this text, 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 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 20 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 euthanasia debate as it unfolds, is captured through including
Somerville's responses to or commentaries on several other authors'
contributions to this debate. This text asks why, when society has rejected euthanasia for over 2000
years, are we considering legalizing it? What impact would its legalization
have on concepts of human rights, human responsibilities, and human ethics? And
can we imagine teaching physicians how to put their patients to death?
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Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Book reviews » Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
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