“Death and Budgets”
That is the title of a column by David Brooks in yesterday’s New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212 Brooks comments on an op-ed piece in last Sunday’s New York Times by Dudley Clendinen, who has ALS. Clendinen’s piece expressed the author’s inclination to commit suicide when his condition worsened. (Teresa already posted about Clendinen’s essay. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=1139 ) The column by […]
Italy Moves Toward Euthanasia Ban
Michael Cook at Bioedge reports on Italian efforts to ban assisted suicide and euthanasia here. The legislation would also require provision of artificially administered food and hydration when needed.
Wesley Smith on Organ Donation and Suicide
At the First Things blog Wesley Smith comments on a tragic story of a 12-year Indian girl who commited suicide to provide organs for her father and brother.
“Abandoning the disabled to assisted suicide in the UK”
That is the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith. Here is the lead paragraph of the post– “The UK is falling off a vertical moral cliff on the assisted suicide issue. It remains a crime. But the Public Prosecutor of England and Wales has stated that if, after a complete investigation, it […]
DNR’s, dementia, and assisted suicide
The Chicago Tribune has an opinion piece today entitled Do not resusictate . . . do not feel remorse. The author describes her mother’s last year of life, struggling with old age and dementia. The mother ultimately dies at home after the family refused to allow a feeding tube. The author also briefly considers how […]
Alzheimer’s and assisted suicide
Here is a link to an important story by Dave Andrusko who discusses a recent Time magazine op-ed by two researchers from the Hastings Center who argue that new tests that may make it possible to detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms of dementia have developed should open up conversations about assisted suicide. Andrusko’s title (“Finding a Justification […]
Nursing Home Residents Views on Death
A study of 121 nursing home residents in England reveals that the residents’ views on advance directives and end-of-life care do not vary much from the views of the general population, notwithstanding deaths of other nursing home residents. The study is summarized with citation at Science Direct here.
Protestanism and Suicide
Researchers at Warwick University have published a new paper entitled Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Protestanism and Sucide. According to the abstract: We model the effect of Protestant vs. Catholic denomination in an economic theory of suicide, accounting for differences in religious-community integration, views about man’s impact on God’s grace, and the possibility of confessing sins. […]
Communication and Moral Complexity
SSRN lists a new article, Moral Conflict and Complexity: The Dynamics of Constructive Versus Destructive Discussions Over Polarizing Issues. The authors’ abstract, which you can access here, describes the contents as: Moral conflicts, whether over abortion, the death penalty, or the ‘right’ approach to addressing terrorism, pose serious challenges to societies worldwide. They can quickly […]
Lou Gerhig’s Disease and Seeking Control of Death
The Sunday New York Times has an opinion piece entitled “The Good Short Life” describing a man’s struggle with Lou Gerhig’s disease and his decision to take his own life at some point. Classifying this piece as an opinion piece makes sense when we consider that emotion, rather than reason, is the basis of public […]