Covid-19 and our Duty to Die

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 769-790
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Guerrero Quiñones

When considering our own death, we normally weigh its impact on the people we love and care about, as well as worrying about the way in which our life might end, hoping that not too much suffering precedes it. However, such view, despite necessary, is a passive understanding of death, interpreted as something that merely happens to us, where we would have some control over timing if physician-assisted dying were legal in our countries. But what if our relation to death would not end there? What if special medical needs, such as the emergency situation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, could have a direct impact on us creating a moral duty to end our lives? That is the thesis that will be advocated for in this paper: a moral duty to die will arise in some people to save resources that will help others get through Covid-19. It is important to indicate that the duty to die is personally acknowledged and self-imposed, thus nobody can be coerced to carry it out; for autonomy would be lost and such action should be considered an instance of incitement to die, therefore being morally blameworthy.

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 292-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne C Snijdewind ◽  
Donald G van Tol ◽  
Bregje D Onwuteaka-Philipsen ◽  
Dick L Willems

BackgroundSince the enactment of the euthanasia law in the Netherlands, there has been a lively public debate on assisted dying that may influence the way patients talk about euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EAS) with their physicians and the way physicians experience the practice of EAS.AimTo show what developments physicians see in practice and how they perceive the influence of the public debate on the practice of EAS.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth interviews with 28 Dutch physicians who had experience with a complex case of EAS. Respondents were recruited both by the network of physicians working for SCEN (Support and Consultation for Euthanasia in the Netherlands) as well as via a national questionnaire, wherein participating physicians could indicate their willingness to be interviewed.ResultsThree themes came up in analysing the interviews. First, the interviewed physicians experienced a change in what (family of) patients would expect from them: from a role as an involved caregiver to being the mere performer of EAS. Second, interviewees said that requests for EAS based on non-medical reasons came up more frequently and wondered if EAS was the right solution for these requests. Last, respondents had the impression that the standards of EAS are shifting and that the boundaries of the EAS regulation were stretched.ConclusionsThe perceived developments could make physicians less willing to consider a request for EAS. Our results also raise questions about the role of physicians and of EAS in society.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilhelm J. Wessels

The book of Jeremiah reflects a particular period in the history of Judah, certain theological perspectives and a particular portrayal of the prophet Jeremiah. Covenant theology played a major role in Jeremiah’s view of life and determined his expectations of leaders and ordinary people. He placed high value on justice and trustworthiness, and people who did not adhere to this would in his view bear the consequences of disobedience to Yahweh’s moral demands and unfaithfulness. The prophet expected those in positions of leadership to adhere to certain ethical obligations as is clear from most of the nouns which appear in Jeremiah 5:1–6. This article argues that crisis situations in history affect leaders’ communication, attitudes and responses. Leaders’ worldviews and ideologies play a definitive role in their responses to crises. Jeremiah’s religious views are reflected in his criticism and demands of people in his society. This is also true as seen from the way the people and leaders in Judah responded to the prophet’s proclamation. Jeremiah 5:1–6 emphasises that knowledge and accountability are expected of leaders at all times, but in particular during unstable political times.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-226
Author(s):  
Ricardo M. Piñeyro Prins ◽  
Guadalupe E. Estrada Narvaez

We are witnessing how new technologies are radically changing the design of organizations, the way in which they produce and manage both their objectives and their strategies, and -above all- how digital transformation impacts the people who are part of it. Even today in our country, many organizations think that digitalizing is having a presence on social networks, a web page or venturing into cases of success in corporate social intranet. Others begin to invest a large part of their budget in training their teams and adapting them to the digital age. But given this current scenario, do we know exactly what the digital transformation of organizations means? It is necessary? Implying? Is there a roadmap to follow that leads to the success of this process? How are organizations that have been born 100% digital from their business conception to the way of producing services through the use of platforms? What role does the organizational culture play in this scenario? The challenge of the digital transformation of businesses and organizations, which is part of the paradigm of the industrial revolution 4.0, is happening here and now in all types of organizations, whether are they private, public or third sector. The challenge to take into account in this process is to identify the digital competences that each worker must face in order to accompany these changes and not be left out of it. In this sense, the present work seeks to analyze the main characteristics of the current technological advances that make up the digital transformation of organizations and how they must be accompanied by a digital culture and skills that allow their successful development. In order to approach this project, we will carry out an exploratory research, collecting data from the sector of new actors in the world of work such as employment platforms in its various areas (gastronomy, delivery, transportation, recreation, domestic service, etc) and an analysis of the main technological changes that impact on the digital transformation of organizations in Argentina.


1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 393-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost de Jong ◽  
Peter T. J. C. van Rooy ◽  
S. Harry Hosper

Until the last two decades, the global perception of how to control our various water bodies was remarkably similar – water management was organised on a sectoral basis, as it always had been. It was only in the 1970s that the people actually responsible for implementing water management began to become aware of the serious implications of such an approach: water quality deterioration, desiccation and an alarming loss of the flora and fauna that characterised their local water environment. It was a growing awareness that led to the formation of the concept of integrated water management, a concept almost universally accepted today as the way forward. However, despite the fact that few dispute the validity of the concept, a number of obstacles remain before this theoretical agreement can be transformed into practical action. Three main bottlenecks stand in the way of implementation: institutional, communicational and socio-political. Whilst solutions to these are available, the key question still to be answered is whether society is really prepared to accept the consequent changes in the way we live that will result from putting the theory of integrated water management into practice. It was this issue that dominated the “Living with water” conference held in Amsterdam in September 1994. The following is a summary of the discussions held there and the various papers that were submitted.


Author(s):  
Zoran Oklopcic

As the final chapter of the book, Chapter 10 confronts the limits of an imagination that is constitutional and constituent, as well as (e)utopian—oriented towards concrete visions of a better life. In doing so, the chapter confronts the role of Square, Triangle, and Circle—which subtly affect the way we think about legal hierarchy, popular sovereignty, and collective self-government. Building on that discussion, the chapter confronts the relationship between circularity, transparency, and iconography of ‘paradoxical’ origins of democratic constitutions. These representations are part of a broader morphology of imaginative obstacles that stand in the way of a more expansive constituent imagination. The second part of the chapter focuses on the most important five—Anathema, Nebula, Utopia, Aporia, and Tabula—and closes with the discussion of Ernst Bloch’s ‘wishful images’ and the ways in which manifold ‘diagrams of hope and purpose’ beyond the people may help make them attractive again.


Author(s):  
Risald Risald ◽  
Suyoto Suyoto ◽  
Albertus Joko Santoso

<p>Deaf or hearing loss is a condition of inability to hear something, either totally or partially. Hearing loss greatly affects the life of a person in communicating with the people around him. Deaf people will be very difficult when in a medical emergency, this is because the medical emergency situation requires fast action.</p><p>          The Healthy Phone application is a mobile medical emergency call application that can help people with hearing impaired when in emergency situations. With the Healthy Phone application, the user only needs to select an icon that suits the situation encountered in touchscreen mobile device then the message will be sent to the nearest hospital.</p>                To search for icons corresponding to emergencies, the User Centered Design (UCD) method is used. This application is very helpful for deaf people because this application does not require audio communication and user location is also sent automatically to the nearest hospital. The results were analyzed using four emergency event scenarios with a total score of 87% and an average user time of less than 0:42 sec indicating that the study was successful in designing a mobile medical emergency call application according to user requirements.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne P. Crick

Tourism is the mainstay of the Caribbean and the attitude of the people in the region may have a significant impact on the success of the industry. This paper analyzes the way in which tourism authorities of three Caribbean destinations have internally marketed tourism to their host populations in order to encourage the desired attitudinal expressions. A matrix of five possible responses to tourism was developed and each of the three countries was found to occupy different positions in the matrix. An analysis of the internal marketing strategies determined that the countries adopted different approaches based on their particular challenges but none of the approaches had achieved lasting success. The study concludes with recommendations for future research.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document