Suicide

2021 ◽  
pp. 299-320
Author(s):  
Sidney Bloch ◽  
David Heyd
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Value Of Life ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Suicide Behaviour ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
History Of ◽  
Suicidal Patients

Beyond the clinical difficulties in treating suicidal patients, suicide is a unique ethical challenge to psychiatrists. For unlike therapy in which patients and doctors share the desirability of the treatment’s goal, suicidal patients and doctors diverge in the way they consider the value of life as such. This makes the traditional standards of informed consent, beneficence, and the ‘do not harm’ principle hard to apply. After shortly outlining the history of the philosophical attitude towards suicide, including its ‘medicalization’ in modern times, the article tackles the problem of intervention in preventing suicidal behaviour, by examining four clinical cases that are distinguished by the intention of the patient, the effectiveness of treatment, and the rationality of the motive. The following section then addresses the heated debate on physician-assisted death, which is more controversial than suicide prevention. Two real-life cases, Bouvia and Chabot, are discussed in detail. Finally, the article focuses on the unique ethical features of research of suicide behaviour and treatment.

Szasz, suicide, and medical ethics

Thomas Szasz ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
George J. Annas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
Suicidal Patients ◽  
Commit Suicide

Szasz objected to the medicalization of suicide, the legalization of suicide prevention, and especially the coercive role of psychiatry in this realm. He declared that, by medicalizing suicide, we banish the subject from discussion. What is meant by acceptable and unacceptable “suicide”? Who has a right to commit suicide? How does suicide implicate freedom? Does it reflect abortion jurisprudence? How do psychiatrists become suicide’s gatekeepers? Current phenomena (e.g., new physician-assisted suicide legislation) illuminate these and other issues (e.g., euthanasia, informed consent, informed refusal, the “right to die,”), all suggesting how Szasz would react to each. Suicide is legal, but is almost always considered a result of mental illness. Courts approve psychiatrists who want to commit “suicidal” patients involuntarily. Granting physicians prospective legal immunity for prescribing lethal drugs is, at best, a strange and tangential reaction to our inability to discuss suicide (and dying) rationally. Szasz got it right.

Death and Dying

Cinema, MD ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 193-216
Author(s):  
Eelco F.M. Wijdicks
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Active Euthanasia ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Dying Patients ◽  
Film Directors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Prolongation Of Life ◽  
Active Assistance

There have been major advances in care of dying patients, and screenwriters, like physicians, have grappled with quality-of-life concerns, artificial prolongation of life, and active assistance in death. Palliation and active euthanasia have been constant, side-by-side considerations in the history of medicine. Assisted death, euthanasia, and self-determination in how to end life have been interests for film directors, and this chapter places these films in context. In real life death is dignified and peaceful, whereas in the movies death from disease is often agonizing and not easily over. In the movies, the sick seldom leave earthly existence in a convincing way.

What is the history of legal physician-assisted death?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. W. Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Ethical Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life Sustaining Treatment ◽  
Right To Refuse Treatment ◽  
Right To Refuse

Is it legal for patients to refuse life-sustaining treatment? Earlier (Chapter 2) we encountered the doctrine of informed consent as a cornerstone of biomedical ethics and noted how it entails the patient’s right to refuse treatment. In addition to its ethical status, however,...

Suicide Prevention Through Online Gatekeeping Using Search Advertising Techniques

Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Sueki ◽  
Jiro Ito
Keyword(s):  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Service Use ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Consultation Service ◽  
Search Advertising ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
History Of

Abstract. Background: Nurturing gatekeepers is an effective suicide prevention strategy. Internet-based methods to screen those at high risk of suicide have been developed in recent years but have not been used for online gatekeeping. Aims: A preliminary study was conducted to examine the feasibility and effects of online gatekeeping. Method: Advertisements to promote e-mail psychological consultation service use among Internet users were placed on web pages identified by searches using suicide-related keywords. We replied to all emails received between July and December 2013 and analyzed their contents. Results: A total of 139 consultation service users were analyzed. The mean age was 23.8 years (SD = 9.7), and female users accounted for 80% of the sample. Suicidal ideation was present in 74.1%, and 12.2% had a history of suicide attempts. After consultation, positive changes in mood were observed in 10.8%, 16.5% showed intentions to seek help from new supporters, and 10.1% of all 139 users actually took help-seeking actions. Conclusion: Online gatekeeping to prevent suicide by placing advertisements on web search pages to promote consultation service use among Internet users with suicidal ideation may be feasible.

EXPLORING THE INTERNAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE ORGANIZATION

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-78
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Marin Georgiev
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Professional Culture ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Technical ◽  
The Subject

The subject of this article is the genesis of the professional culture of personnel management. The last decades of the 20th century were marked by various revolutions - scientific, technical, democratic, informational, sexual, etc. Their cumulative effect has been mostly reflected in the professional revolution that shapes the professional society around the world. This social revolution has global consequences. In addition to its extensive parameters, it also has intensive ones related to the deeply-rooted structural changes in the ways of working and thinking, as well as in the forms of its social organization. The professional revolutions in the history of Modern Times stem from this theory.Employees’ awareness and accountability shall be strengthened. The leader must be able to formulate and bring closer to the employees the vision of the organization and its future goal, to which all shall aspire. He should pay attention not to the "letter" but to the "spirit" of this approach.

Historical Representations and Recent Changes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Schaflechner
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Representations ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.

From Stonehenge to Samarkand

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Gustave Flaubert ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Ancient Civilization ◽  
Machu Picchu ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Silk Road

Ever since Roman tourists scratched graffiti on the pyramids and temples of Egypt over two thousand years ago, people have traveled far and wide seeking the great wonders of antiquity. In From Stonehenge to Samarkand, noted archaeologist and popular writer Brian Fagan offers an engaging historical account of our enduring love of ancient architecture--the irresistible impulse to visit strange lands in search of lost cities and forgotten monuments. Here is a marvelous history of archaeological tourism, with generous excerpts from the writings of the tourists themselves. Readers will find Herodotus describing the construction of Babylon; Edward Gibbon receiving inspiration for his seminal work while wandering through the ruins of the Forum in Rome; Gustave Flaubert watching the sunrise from atop the Pyramid of Cheops. We visit Easter Island with Pierre Loti, Machu Picchu with Hiram Bingham, Central Africa with David Livingstone. Fagan describes the early antiquarians, consumed with a passionate and omnivorous curiosity, pondering the mysteries of Stonehenge, but he also considers some of the less reputable figures, such as the Earl of Elgin, who sold large parts of the Parthenon to the British Museum. Finally, he discusses the changing nature of archaeological tourism, from the early romantic wanderings of the solitary figure, communing with the departed spirits of Druids or Mayans, to the cruise-ship excursions of modern times, where masses of tourists are hustled through ruins, barely aware of their surroundings. From the Holy Land to the Silk Road, the Yucatán to Angkor Wat, Fagan follows in the footsteps of the great archaeological travelers to retrieve their first written impressions in a book that will delight anyone fascinated with the landmarks of ancient civilization.

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