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Search Results for: euthanasia

The Euthanasia of Ivan Ilyich: Recovering Good Lives and Deaths in the Age of Assisted Dying

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The direction of our culture is increasingly toward “death pods” where we will die alone, because we, like Ivan, have refused to really live together. Resisting such a culture of solitary and uncared for assisted dying will take legislation, but it will also require that we spend some time with Ilyich and try to recover the goodness of a good life and of a good death. S
Hartheim Castle

Euthanasia in the Castle: Inside Europe’s Museums of Nazi Medical Crimes

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Today we might instinctively look at Nazi criteria for death as utterly baseless, but at the time seasoned medical professionals regarded them as reasonable. To have a sense of history is to grasp the arbitrariness of such criteria. When it comes to killing patients, there is no way to get the criteria just right because the stamp of medical approval sends a social message that there is a category of persons who should not exist.
bed

Expanding Euthanasia during the Pandemic

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It seems particularly disturbing to imagine legalizing euthanasia in this moment, let alone expanding access to euthanasia if it is already legal. Even so, this is precisely what is underway in Canada.

The Contagion of Euthanasia and the Corruption of Compassion

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The contagion of assisted suicide, once the command “Thou shalt not kill” is set aside, quickly spreads elsewhere. True compassion does not abandon people at their most vulnerable.
Public Discourse

Give Me Liberty and Give Me Death: Belgium’s Brave New Euthanasia Regime

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Belgium has the most permissive euthanasia laws in the world, and one of every twenty deaths in Belgium is now deliberately caused. Suicide is becoming a moral obligation in a culture that promotes euthanasia as a dignified exit that offers relief to caregivers.
Public Discourse

A Right to Euthanasia?

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For both principled and practical reasons, the Supreme Court of Canada should maintain the country’s legal ban on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
Public Discourse

Euphemisms for Euthanasia and False Dilemmas: An Update on the Assisted Suicide Debate in the United States

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Now is the time for renewed vigilance for those who oppose euthanasia. The worst of this battle is yet to come.
Public Discourse

A Lethal Legacy: Hurricane Katrina and the Indignity of Euthanasia

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A new book tells the harrowing story of Memorial Medical Center, where some physicians took the lives of their patients during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

On Medical Killing and “Capitalism”

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It is misguided to rest one’s opposition to medical killing on a vague allergy to greed and to profit in general, when cost-pressures are a reality whether “profit” is relevant or not, and—in some cases at least—the profiteers are a countervailing force.

Christian Bioethics in a Secular World: In Search of Ethical Common Ground

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Beyond a mere set of rules and regulations, a bioethics shaped by Christianity does have something to say to those who suffer—and a person to say it to, One who has suffered alongside us. It is my hope—as it is Cherry’s, I imagine—to see bioethics transformed by the love and mercy made possible by a personal knowledge of Christ. 
death, mortality, cemetary

Houellebecq at the End

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The sadness of Michel Houellebecq lies in the accuracy of his diagnosis and the failure of his prescription. He sees that death is the last enemy, but not that it might be destroyed.
Protestant church in America

Protestant Futures and Friendships

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The challenges Protestants face are serious. But if we have the humility to learn from others, we will find that there are models and resources readily available to help us think through how we might respond to our cultural moment.
hospice

Consciousness and Sedation at the End of Life

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Consciousness is not simply a phenomenon that can be arbitrarily dispensed with or suppressed at whim: it is a critical element of the human experience, particularly in the last chapter of one’s earthly existence, during which one comes face to face with the mystery of suffering and the meaning of life.
end of life

Flourishing at the End of Life

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Dying is part of life, but most people dread their final days. The end of life, which often takes the form of protracted terminal illness, can involve significant pain and suffering as well as functional limits in day-to-day living. Is it still possible for human beings to flourish at the end of life?
from the editor's desk

From the Editor’s Desk: Public Discourse’s Monthly Roundup, July 2024

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If ennobling discourse is now countercultural, so too is our journal. Like the Witherspoon Institute, PD is an institution that bears witness to a virtuous (and virtuously “slower”) mode of public engagement: engagement that reflects an open-hearted, honest yearning for the common good.
euthanasia

Assisted Death and The Economist

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The American experience with assisted suicide should persuade Great Britain and other countries that the slippery slope to broader killing is disturbingly genuine.
UN HQ

The ICPD Programme of Action at Thirty: Protecting Human Rights, Promoting Development, and Respecting State Sovereignty

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For future CPD outcome documents and political declarations to be truly consensual and reflective of the priorities of all countries, states must ensure that the UN system as a whole stays away from ideological agendas and meets the authentic needs of the world.
assisted dying

Is the Fight against Assisted Dying a Lost Cause?

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Canada’s infamy has led many to rethink their support for assisted dying, no matter how strong the purported safeguards may be.
bioethics

A Common Good Framework in Bioethics and Policy

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The public bioethics conversations of the twenty-first century will be much more nuanced and complicated than the abortion debate of the last fifty years. If we want to speak thoughtfully about how these and other technologies are shaping our future, we will need to move beyond a reductionist approach to human dignity.
Israel-Hamas War

The West Has Forgotten Why Collateral Damage Is Morally Justified

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Ultimately, the defeat of these terrorist groups is the primary ethical imperative. This will benefit not only Israel but also the Gazan civilians who suffer longer under their terrorist leaders and the continuous warfare that they breed. There is a moral cost to not acting decisively, and a strategic cost to forgetting the moral justification for killing in war.
from the editor's desk

From the Editor’s Desk: Public Discourse’s Monthly Roundup, February 2024

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Reflections on right reason plus a roundup of this month's essays
Luke Burgis

Q&A: Be Not Conformed—Girard and the Problem of Desire in a Postsecular Age

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It’s useful to heed the words of Gabriel Marcel when it comes to desire. To paraphrase his “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived,” perhaps we could instead say: “Desire is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.” Girard himself refers to desire as a “mystery” on numerous occasions. I think he spent his entire life trying to understand that mystery.
Pregnant woman holding her belly

Disability Requires Protection in the Womb

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If Ms. Cox is unwilling to parent a disabled child, she should terminate her parental rights upon birth, giving others the chance to show charity to a small but greatly treasured life. To hold that child’s hand as he or she drew a final breath would be to sit on hallowed ground.
euthanasia

Canada Is Not Only Euthanizing Persons but Personhood Itself

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Much work must be done to restore the proper understanding of personhood—what it means to be human—in societies that permit euthanasia. This work will take not just years, but decades and possibly even longer than that.
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