A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern AmericaOxford University Press, 9. sij 2003. - Broj stranica: 272 While it may seem that debates over euthanasia began with Jack Kervorkian, the practice of mercy killing extends back to Ancient Greece and beyond. In America, the debate has raged for well over a century. Now, in A Merciful End, Ian Dowbiggin offers the first full-scale historical account of one of the most controversial reform movements in America. Drawing on unprecedented access to the archives of the Euthanasia Society of America, interviews with important figures in the movement today, and flashpoint cases such as the tragic fate of Karen Ann Quinlan, Dowbiggin tells the dramatic story of the men and women who struggled throughout the twentieth century to change the nation's attitude--and its laws--regarding mercy killing. In tracing the history of the euthanasia movement, he documents its intersection with other progressive social causes: women's suffrage, birth control, abortion rights, as well as its uneasy pre-WWII alliance with eugenics. Such links brought euthanasia activists into fierce conflict with Judeo-Christian institutions who worried that "the right to die" might become a "duty to die." Indeed, Dowbiggin argues that by joining a sometimes overzealous quest to maximize human freedom with a desire to "improve" society, the euthanasia movement has been dogged by the fear that mercy killing could be extended to persons with disabilities, handicapped newborns, unconscious geriatric patients, lifelong criminals, and even the poor. Justified or not, such fears have stalled the movement, as more and more Americans now prefer better end-of-life care than wholesale changes in euthanasia laws. For anyone trying to decide whether euthanasia offers a humane alternative to prolonged suffering or violates the "sanctity of life," A Merciful End provides fascinating and much-needed historical context. |
Sadržaj
| 1 | |
Breakthrough 19201940 | 32 |
Stalemate 19401960 | 63 |
4 Riding a Great Wave 19601975 | 97 |
Not That Simple 19751990 | 136 |
Conclusion The 1990s and Beyond | 163 |
Abbreviations Used in Notes | 179 |
Notes | 181 |
Bibliography | 229 |
Index | 241 |
Ostala izdanja - Prikaži sve
A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America Ian Robert Dowbiggin Ograničeni pregled - 2003 |
Uobičajeni izrazi i fraze
abortion active euthanasia activists assisted suicide baby believed birth control Black Stork board meeting Bollinger Box C-4 Box D-1 cancer CFD's Charles Francis Potter Christian Cited Darwinism death and dying death with dignity debate December defenders Derek Humphry disease doctors Donald McKinney Dwight Jones Eleanor Dwight Jones endorsed ESA's eugenic sterilization eugenicists eutha euthanasia advocates Euthanasia in America euthanasia movement Euthanasia Society February Filene folder Fosdick freedom Haiselden Hemlock Society human Humanist individuals Ingersoll interest in euthanasia Joseph Fletcher Kallen Kevorkian liberal living Margaret Sanger Medicine mentally mercy killing Mercy-Killing Millard moral nasia Nazi Olive Ruth Russell organization pain Pernick Philbrick physician-assisted suicide physicians political population control Progressive reform religion religious right to die right-to-die Sanger social SRD board SRD's suffering terminally ill thanasia tion twentieth century uncatalogued Unitarian University Press voluntary euthanasia women World York
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