7. Suicide and euthanasia

Author(s):  
Damien Keown

In 1963, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself alive to protest government abuses. ‘Suicide and euthanasia’ starts by looking at the impact of this public suicide, which directed Western attention towards Buddhism in the 1960s. Many Buddhists believe that one’s lifespan is determined by karma and so it is wrong to hasten one’s end through suicide in this way. Others believe that suicide may be justified in exceptional circumstances. While the classical position is clearly opposed to euthanasia, Buddhists are not unanimous in their position. While viewed with disapproval in most Asian societies given the respect in which elders are held, Western Buddhists who prioritize personal autonomy may take a more permissive attitude. Buddhism is generally more open about death and encourages its followers to prepare for it in practical ways. The Buddha’s calm, resigned death is the example most would seek to emulate.

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chik Collins ◽  
Ian Levitt

This article reports findings of research into the far-reaching plan to ‘modernise’ the Scottish economy, which emerged from the mid-late 1950s and was formally adopted by government in the early 1960s. It shows the growing awareness amongst policy-makers from the mid-1960s as to the profoundly deleterious effects the implementation of the plan was having on Glasgow. By 1971 these effects were understood to be substantial with likely severe consequences for the future. Nonetheless, there was no proportionate adjustment to the regional policy which was creating these understood ‘unwanted’ outcomes, even when such was proposed by the Secretary of State for Scotland. After presenting these findings, the paper offers some consideration as to their relevance to the task of accounting for Glasgow's ‘excess mortality’. It is suggested that regional policy can be seen to have contributed to the accumulation of ‘vulnerabilities’, particularly in Glasgow but also more widely in Scotland, during the 1960s and 1970s, and that the impact of the post-1979 UK government policy agenda on these vulnerabilities is likely to have been salient in the increase in ‘excess mortality’ evident in subsequent years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1458-1464
Author(s):  
Sweta Kamboj ◽  
Rohit Kamboj ◽  
Shikha Kamboj ◽  
Kumar Guarve ◽  
Rohit Dutt

Background: In the 1960s, the human coronavirus was designated, which is responsible for the upper respiratory tract disease in children. Back in 2003, mainly 5 new coronaviruses were recognized. This study directly pursues to govern knowledge, attitude and practice of viral and droplet infection isolation safeguard among the researchers during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Introduction: Coronavirus is a proteinaceous and infectious pathogen. It is an etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Coronavirus, appeared in China from the seafood and poultry market last year, which has spread in various countries, and has caused several deaths. Methods: The literature data has been taken from different search platforms like PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, who.int portal and complied. Results: Corona virology study will be more advanced and outstanding in recent years. COVID-19 epidemic is a threatening reminder not solely for one country but all over the universe. Conclusion: In this review article, we encapsulated the pathogenesis, geographical spread of coronavirus worldwide, also discussed the perspective of diagnosis, effective treatment, and primary recommendations by the World Health Organization, and guidelines of the government to slow down the impact of the virus are also optimistic, efficacious and obliging for the public health. However, it will take a prolonged time in the future to overcome this epidemic.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Yongqiang Yu ◽  
Tingting Li ◽  
Lijun Yu

Responses of crop growth to climate warming are fundamental to future food security. The response of crops to climate change may be subtly different at their growing stages. Close insights into the differentiated stage-dependent responses of crops are significantly important in making adaptive adjustments of crops’ phenological optimization and cultivar improvement in diverse cropping systems. Using the Agro-C model, we studied the influence of past climate warming on crops in typical cropping systems in China. The results showed that while the temperature had increased distinctly from the 1960s to 2000s, the temperature frequency distributions in the growth season of crops moved to the high-temperature direction. The low temperature days during the crop growth periods that suppress crop growth decreased in the winter wheat area in North and East China, rice and maize areas in Northeast China, and the optimum temperature days increased significantly. As a result, the above ground biomass (AGB) of rice and maize in Northeast China and winter wheat in North and East China increased distinctly, while that of rice in South China had no significant change. A comparison of the key growth periods before and after heading (silking) showed that the warming before heading (silking) made a great contribution to the increase in the AGB, especially for winter wheat.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 925
Author(s):  
Lutz Depenbusch ◽  
Cathy Rozel Farnworth ◽  
Pepijn Schreinemachers ◽  
Thuzar Myint ◽  
Md Monjurul Islam ◽  
...  

Agricultural mechanization has spread across much of Asia since the 1960s. It has increased agricultural productivity and reduced arduous farm work. However, differing impacts for smallholders and hired laborers, and for men and women, require careful consideration. This study analyzed, ex-ante, the likely social and economic tradeoffs of mechanizing the mungbean harvest in Bangladesh and Myanmar. We used a mixed methods approach combining survey data from 852 farm households with in-depth interviews in four villages. Partial budget analysis shows that mechanical harvesting of mungbean is not yet profitable for most farms. There is nevertheless an incentive to mechanize as the associated timeliness of the harvest reduces the risk of harvest losses from weather shocks. Men and women farmers expect time savings and reduced drudgery. The results confirm that hired workers depend on manual harvesting for income and status in both countries. Most hired workers are landless married women with limited access to other sources of income. In the short term, farmers are likely to combine manual harvests and a final mechanized harvest of the indeterminate crop. This could mediate the impact on hired workers. However, in the long term, it will be necessary to facilitate income-generating opportunities for women in landless rural families to maintain their well-being and income.


2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regine O. Jackson

AbstractThis article contributes to the growing body of work on the impact of religious institutions on the identities and experiences of new immigrants from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia. Drawing from ethnographic research on Haitian immigrants in Boston, I find a relationship between initial residential settlement patterns and the location of Catholic churches. Following Gerald Gamm's Urban Exodus: Why Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed, I argue that Haitian immigrants who arrived in Boston in the 1960s were attracted to certain neighborhoods despite the racial climate because they were Catholic. In addition to the influence of rules governing membership and religious authority, I show that Haitians turned to a Catholic narrative of their experience in Boston because being Catholic was the most acceptable way of being Haitian in that social context.


2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILIA MARÍA DURÁN-ALMARZA

The Dominican American community in New York is perhaps one of the best examples of how processes of transculturation are affecting traditional definitions of ethnic identification. Given the intense economic, social and cultural transnational exchanges between the island and the USA from the 1960s, Dominicanyorks have been challenging the illusion of homogeneity in the definition of Americanness for decades, creating transnational social networks that transcend traditional national and ethnographic boundaries. The theatrical works of Josefina Báez, a Dominican American performer living in New York, and Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso, a Dominican poet and playwright who lived and worked in the US metropolis for decades before moving back to the Dominican Republic, lyrically explore issues of diaspora, identity and migration and the impact these phenomena might have in the lives of migrant Dominican women. Presenting diasporic experiences from two differing but interconnected locales – New York and the Dominican Republic – these plays offer two complementary views on the ways in which ethnicity, race, social class, age and geopolitical location interact in the formation of transcultural identities, thus contributing to develop a hemispheric approach to the study of identity formation in the Americas.


Author(s):  
Terry L. Birdwhistell ◽  
Deirdre A. Scaggs

Since women first entered the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1880 they have sought, demanded, and struggled for equality within the university. The period between 1880 and 1945 at UK witnessed women’s suffrage, two world wars, and an economic depression. It was during this time that women at UK worked to take their rightful place in the university’s life prior to the modern women’s movement of the 1960s and beyond. The history of women at UK is not about women triumphant, and it remains an untidy story. After pushing for admission into a male-centric campus environment, women created women’s spaces, women’s organizations, and a women’s culture often patterned on those of men. At times, it seemed that a goal was to create a woman’s college within the larger university. However, coeducation meant that women, by necessity, competed with men academically while still navigating the evolving social norms of relationships between the sexes. Both of those paths created opportunities, challenges, and problems for women students and faculty. By taking a more women-centric view of the campus, this study shows more clearly the impact that women had over time on the culture and environment. It also allows a comparison, and perhaps a contrast, of the experiences of UK women with other public universities across the United States.


2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciane Carniel Wagner ◽  
Marcelo Pio de Almeida Fleck ◽  
Mário Wagner ◽  
Míriam Thaís Guterres Dias

OBJECTIVE: To assess personal autonomy of long-stay psychiatric inpatients, to identify those patients who could be discharged and to evaluate the impact of sociodemographic variables, social functioning, and physical disabilities on their autonomy was also assessed. METHODS: A total of 584 long-stay individuals of a psychiatric hospital (96% of the hospital population) in Southern Brazil was assessed between July and August 2002. The following instruments, adapted to the Brazilian reality, were used: independent living skills survey, social behavioral schedule, and questionnaire for assessing physical disability. RESULTS: Patients showed severe impairment of their personal autonomy, especially concerning money management, work-related skills and leisure, food preparation, and use of transportation. Autonomy deterioration was associated with length of stay (OR=1.02), greater physical disability (OR=1.54; p=0.01), and male gender (OR=3.11; p<0.001). The risk estimate of autonomy deterioration was 23 times greater among those individuals with severe impairment of social functioning (95% CI: 10.67-49.24). CONCLUSIONS: In-patients studied showed serious impairment of autonomy. While planning these patients' discharge their deficits should be taken into consideration. Assessment of patients' ability to function and to be autonomous helps in identifying their needs for care and to evaluate their actual possibilities of social reinsertion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher N. Johnson

Since the 1960s, Australian scientists have speculated on the impact of human arrival on fire regimes in Australia, and on the relationship of landscape fire to extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Australia. These speculations have produced a series of contrasting hypotheses that can now be tested using evidence collected over the past two decades. In the present paper, I summarise those hypotheses and review that evidence. The main conclusions of this are that (1) the effects of people on fire regimes in the Pleistocene were modest at the continental scale, and difficult to distinguish from climatic controls on fire, (2) the arrival of people triggered extinction of Australia’s megafauna, but fire had little or no role in the extinction of those animals, which was probably due primarily to hunting and (3) megafaunal extinction is likely to have caused a cascade of changes that included increased fire, but only in some environments. We do not yet understand what environmental factors controlled the strength and nature of cascading effects of megafaunal extinction. This is an important topic for future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-442
Author(s):  
L. Agliulova ◽  
D. Panyagin

This article shows the need to include the teaching of healthy lifestyles — Wellness — in student’s education. Nowadays, the health of students is significantly deteriorating due to a sedentary lifestyle, a violation of the day and sleep patterns, and an increase in mental stress. We know the impact of health on academic performance, so the importance of this training should be noted. Wellness is the concept of a healthy lifestyle, the study of the combination of physical and spiritual health, healthy eating, adequate physical exertion and the elimination of bad habits. The concept of Wellness was introduced into practice by the American doctor Halbert Donne in 1959, he also formulated the basic principles of a healthy lifestyle. In the 1960s, wellness gained great popularity, first in professional circles, and then in wide circles of American society, thanks to the numerous publications of Halbert Donne, John Travis, Donald Ardell and Gerhart Hettler. The introduction of the concept of Wellness in the training of students leads to an increase in interest in the lessons of physical culture. And, to a comprehensive improvement in the quality of life and health, student performance. Indeed, at the present time, the following causes of deterioration in the health of the young generation can be identified: neuro–psychological stress; mental fatigue; violation of work and rest; sleep disturbance; violation of the diet; bad habits; insufficient motor activity. That is why it is necessary to introduce into the habit of the student’s moderate exercise, proper nutrition and quality rest. Which involves the teachings of Wellness?


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