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1 – 10 of over 11000Lori G. Beaman and Cory Steele
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the ways in which the Supreme Court of Canada has shifted away from transcendent/religious to nonreligious conceptualizations of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the ways in which the Supreme Court of Canada has shifted away from transcendent/religious to nonreligious conceptualizations of assisted dying.
Design/methodology/approach
A discourse analysis of a Supreme Court of Canada case on assisted dying and the facta of the 26 associated interveners.
Findings
The research points to a shift away from religious to nonreligious understandings in the way the Court conceptualizes suffering, pain, illness and assisted dying.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the understanding of nonreligion as a social phenomenon.
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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the eventual legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales should extend to persons deprived of liberty, as well.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the eventual legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales should extend to persons deprived of liberty, as well.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a relational view of dignity strengthens the argument that the need to protect the dignity of persons deprived of liberty requires the extension of the legalisation of assisted dying to persons deprived of liberty once generally achieved in England and Wales.
Findings
Three aspects make dignity a relational concept – dignity being attributed by society, dignity working as a restraint on others and dignity requiring specific behaviours. All these elements support the claim that assisted dying should be available to persons deprived of liberty, once legalised in England and Wales.
Originality/value
Both the legalisation of assisted dying for persons deprived of liberty and the concept of relational dignity have to date found little attention. With a legalisation of assisted dying being debated in England and Wales, it is pertinent to discuss its application to persons deprived of liberty, who would undoubtedly not automatically benefit from a future Assisted Dying Act.
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This article intervenes in the debate, among US disability rights advocates, about physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Through an ethnographic study, I situate this debate in the…
Abstract
This article intervenes in the debate, among US disability rights advocates, about physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Through an ethnographic study, I situate this debate in the context of the dominant form of end-of-life care in the US hospice. Based on this analysis, I argue that PAS should be an issue of secondary concern to disability rights advocates, and that their primary concern, at the end-of-life, should be the improvement of US hospice care. By thus “putting the ‘right to die’ in its place,” they can achieve consensus among themselves and leverage this consensus to achieve the most substantial advancement of disability rights.
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DeMond Shondell Miller and Christopher Gonzalez
This paper views the growing popularity of death tourism which directs the confrontation with grief and mortality with the expressed purpose of orchestrating travel that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper views the growing popularity of death tourism which directs the confrontation with grief and mortality with the expressed purpose of orchestrating travel that culminates in assistance to end one's life. The specific aims of this paper are to describe the emerging phenomenon of death tourism and situate it as a form of dark tourism, to present briefly the social and legal aspects of assisted suicide in conjunction within the tourism industry, and to conclude with how the trend of death tourism is potentially spreading to other countries beyond Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
By employing a variety of primary and secondary resources, from death tourism industry documents, legal statutes, and news reports, this study explores the propositions of this article.
Findings
Whereas much of the contemporary research in dark tourism focuses on sights, experiences, and actual memorialization, death tourism tends to comprise a holistic view of the emerging phenomenon by viewing supply and demand management (and promotion), political interpretation and control. The final component of the paper views societal interpretations of death tourism and its potential for market expansion.
Research limitations/implications
There have been several social movements and legislative attempts to curtail the spread of assisted suicide and death tourism; however, the demand for the services has grown to the point where jurisdictions are considering measures to allow this practice. Such an expansion of legalized assisted suicide will allow those seeking the right to die more options for a death within a diversified tourism industry.
Originality/value
Death tourism, within dark tourism, represents an emerging field with few academic resources. This paper works to conceptualize and clarify the unique place death tourism holds within tourism and dark tourism specifically.
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Sushant Shivaji Pawar, Pallavi V. Madiwale, Ashitosh Pawar and Ravindra Vithal Adivarekar
Dyeing of silk fabric was studied to increase dye uptake using eco-friendly glycerine based eutectic solvent (GES), which acts as a swelling agent.
Abstract
Purpose
Dyeing of silk fabric was studied to increase dye uptake using eco-friendly glycerine based eutectic solvent (GES), which acts as a swelling agent.
Design/methodology/approach
The swelling behaviour of silk fabric in GES was analyzed using three-dimensional laser scanning microscope. Dyeing parameters such as time, temperature and GES concentration were optimized using design of experiments.
Findings
In total, 5.34 F-value and 0.0014 p-value of ANOVA represent that the model is significant. An optimized GES assisted dyeing was carried out with two different classes of dyes such as Acid Blue 281 and Acid Red 151 and further compared with that of conventional aqueous dyeing method.
Originality/value
At 70°C, silk fabric achieves desired colour strength after 35 min of dyeing (10 min lesser than conventional) using GES assisted dyeing method. % Dye exhaustion of GES assisted dye bath was carried out and found to be very good. Fastness properties such as washing, light and rubbing fastness of conventional and GES assisted dyed silk fabric showed comparable results.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether, although the state has a duty to protect prisoners, there should nevertheless be a right for prisoners to decide when and how they…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether, although the state has a duty to protect prisoners, there should nevertheless be a right for prisoners to decide when and how they die.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a utopian thought experiment, the paper covers a series of interrelated issues: the aims of punishment, the functions of prisons, the rights of prisoners and the responsibilities of the state towards inmates. While the paper takes a European focus, it is of interest to a global audience, as the philosophical ideas raised are universally applicable.
Findings
As the right to die advances in society, so should it advance for prisoners. Once assisted dying has been legalised, it should also be available for dying prisoners.
Originality/value
The question has so far not been analysed in depth. With an ageing prison population, however, it is vital that we start engaging with the problems posed by an ageing and dying prison population.
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Konrad Szocik and Rakhat Abylkasymova
Current covid-19 pandemic challenges health-care ethics. Ones of the most important challenges are medical resources allocation and a duty to treat, often addressed to medical…
Abstract
Purpose
Current covid-19 pandemic challenges health-care ethics. Ones of the most important challenges are medical resources allocation and a duty to treat, often addressed to medical personnel. This paper suggests that there are good reasons to rethink our health-care ethics for future global catastrophic risks. Current pandemic shows how challenging can be an issue of resources allocation even in a relatively small kind of catastrophic event such as covid-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors show that any future existential bigger catastrophe may require new guidelines for the allocation of medical resources. The idea of assisted dying is considered as a hypothetical scenario.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual work based on conceptual analysis at the intersection of risk studies, health-care ethics and future studies. This study builds the argument on the assumption that the covid-19 pandemic should be treated as a sort of global catastrophic risk. Findings show that there are no such attempts in currently published peer-reviewed academic literature. This is crucial concept for the meta-analysis. This study shows why and how current pandemic can be interpreted in terms of global catastrophic risk even if, literally, covid-19 does not meet all criteria required in the risk studies to be called a global catastrophe.
Findings
We can expect an emergence of discriminatory selection policy which will require some actions taken by future patients like, for example, genetic engineering. But even then it is inevitable that there will still be a large number of survivors who require medical assistance, which they have no chance of receiving. This is why this study has considered the concept of assisted dying understood as an official protocol for health-care ethics and resources allocation policy in the case of emergency situations. Possibly more controversial idea discussed in this paper is an idea of assisted dying for those who cannot receive required medical help. Such procedure could be applied in a mass-scale during a global catastrophic event.
Research limitations/implications
Philosophers and ethicists should identify and study all possible pros and cons of this discrimination rule. As this study’s findings suggested above, a reliable point of reference is the concept of substantial human enhancement. Human enhancement as such, widely debated, should be studied in that specific context of discrimination of patients in an access to limited medical resources. Last but not least, scientific community should study the concept of assisted dying which could be applied for those survivors who have no chance of obtaining medical care. Such criteria and concepts as cost-benefit analysis, the ethics of quality of life, autonomy of patients and duty of medical personnel should be considered.
Practical implications
Politicians and policymakers should prepare protocols for global catastrophes where these discrimination criteria would have to be applied. The same applies to the development of medical robotics aimed at replacing human health-care personnel. We assume that this is important implication for practical policy in healthcare. Our prediction, however plausible, is not a good scenario for humanity. But given this realistic development trajectory, we should do everything possible to prevent the need for the discriminatory rules in medical care described above.
Originality/value
This study offers the idea of assisted dying as a health-care policy in emergency situations. The authors expect that next future global catastrophes – looking at the current pandemic only as a mild prelude – will force a radical change in moral values and medical standards. New criteria of selection and discrimination will be perceived as much more exclusivist and unfair than criteria applied today.
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This chapter examines disability rights movement's rejection of a right to physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Supporters of PAS frame the right to enlist a physician's help in…
Abstract
This chapter examines disability rights movement's rejection of a right to physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Supporters of PAS frame the right to enlist a physician's help in determining the nature and timing of one's death as a fundamental liberty interest and as a right to privacy. The disability opposition counters this with disparate impact and slippery slope arguments and stories of disability pride as a rhetorical rejection of a right it deems dangerous and discriminatory. In examining this clash of rights talk, this chapter analyzes the legal and political consequences of anti-rights rhetoric by a movement that is grounded in notions of autonomy and self-determination.