scholarly journals The Right to Die and the Communal Body - An examination of the media influence, ethical principles and stakeholder attitudes towards assisted dying in New Zealand from a sociology in bioethics perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sarah Revell-Dennett
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Socially Situated

<p>This thesis is based on a sociology in bioethics approach which seeks to demonstrate that the current rhetoric being used by parties on both sides of the debate is no longer useful for the realities that people are expressing or living. In sociology, the assisted dying literature has tended to focus on the social, political, economic and cultural contexts within which it is sought, and to understand the range of definitions that are used to conceptualise a good death. Bioethics literature, on the other hand, has removed the socially situated individual from ethical discussions of assisted dying. By engaging with an idea of the communal body, interpreted as a moral community who experience intersubjective realties, this thesis provides a platform to combine these two perspectives. It seeks to examine the range of possibilities for understanding the socially situated and relationally autonomous individual requesting medically-assisted death.  The debate in New Zealand surrounding the right-to-die was brought to the fore in 2015 when terminally ill Lecretia Seales took a case to the High Court. Her argument sought a clarification of the current law, which would have allowed her doctor to provide life-ending medication should her pain and suffering become unbearable. Seales’ case was unsuccessful but it, along with the following events, has succeeded in bringing attention about end-of-life choices to the New Zealand public and media. The current End of Life Choice Bill, which stands before Parliament and was proposed by Member of Parliament (MP) David Seymour of the ACT Party, will once again provide a chance for these issues to be voted on by New Zealand’s elected officials.  A critical analysis of provincial New Zealand media articles, across the time periods between 2002-2005 and 2012-2015, has sought to highlight the ways the media influences public perceptions of the debate and emphasises the limited discourse available. These years represent significant periods during which events in time led the media to variably describe these deaths from murders to mercy killings. Further thematic analysis (TA) of 12 interviews undertaken with stakeholders in the field of medically-assisted dying show discrepancies between lay public knowledge and informed stakeholder views.  Overall, this thesis situates the communal body within the right-to-die argument in New Zealand. The results lend themselves to support a view that the current lack of available discourse has for the most part irrevocably rendered a divide between those who campaign for change and those who do not. In this thesis, I argue that by positioning itself within a sociology in bioethics approach, the right-to-die debate in New Zealand will be afforded a clearer understanding.</p>

scholarly journals The Right to Die and the Communal Body - An examination of the media influence, ethical principles and stakeholder attitudes towards assisted dying in New Zealand from a sociology in bioethics perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sarah Revell-Dennett
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Socially Situated

<p>This thesis is based on a sociology in bioethics approach which seeks to demonstrate that the current rhetoric being used by parties on both sides of the debate is no longer useful for the realities that people are expressing or living. In sociology, the assisted dying literature has tended to focus on the social, political, economic and cultural contexts within which it is sought, and to understand the range of definitions that are used to conceptualise a good death. Bioethics literature, on the other hand, has removed the socially situated individual from ethical discussions of assisted dying. By engaging with an idea of the communal body, interpreted as a moral community who experience intersubjective realties, this thesis provides a platform to combine these two perspectives. It seeks to examine the range of possibilities for understanding the socially situated and relationally autonomous individual requesting medically-assisted death.  The debate in New Zealand surrounding the right-to-die was brought to the fore in 2015 when terminally ill Lecretia Seales took a case to the High Court. Her argument sought a clarification of the current law, which would have allowed her doctor to provide life-ending medication should her pain and suffering become unbearable. Seales’ case was unsuccessful but it, along with the following events, has succeeded in bringing attention about end-of-life choices to the New Zealand public and media. The current End of Life Choice Bill, which stands before Parliament and was proposed by Member of Parliament (MP) David Seymour of the ACT Party, will once again provide a chance for these issues to be voted on by New Zealand’s elected officials.  A critical analysis of provincial New Zealand media articles, across the time periods between 2002-2005 and 2012-2015, has sought to highlight the ways the media influences public perceptions of the debate and emphasises the limited discourse available. These years represent significant periods during which events in time led the media to variably describe these deaths from murders to mercy killings. Further thematic analysis (TA) of 12 interviews undertaken with stakeholders in the field of medically-assisted dying show discrepancies between lay public knowledge and informed stakeholder views.  Overall, this thesis situates the communal body within the right-to-die argument in New Zealand. The results lend themselves to support a view that the current lack of available discourse has for the most part irrevocably rendered a divide between those who campaign for change and those who do not. In this thesis, I argue that by positioning itself within a sociology in bioethics approach, the right-to-die debate in New Zealand will be afforded a clearer understanding.</p>

Death with “dignity”: The wedge that divides the disability rights movement from the right to die movement

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Behuniak
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Death With Dignity ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Right

Much of the American debate over physician assisted death (PAD) is framed as an ideological split between conservatives and liberals, pro life and pro choice advocates, and those who emphasize morality versus personal autonomy. Less examined, but no less relevant, is a split within the ranks of progressives—one that divides those supporting a right to die in the name of human rights from disability rights activists who invoke human rights to vehemently oppose euthanasia. This paper reviews how “dignity” serves both as a divisive wedge in this debate but also as a value that can span the divide between groups and open the way to productive discourse. Supporters of legalized euthanasia use “dignity” to express their position that some deaths might indeed be accelerated. At the same time, opponents adopt the concept to argue that physician assisted suicide stigmatizes life with a disability. To bridge this divide, the worldviews of two groups, Compassion & Choices and Not Dead Yet, are studied. The analysis concludes that the two organizations are more parallel than contrary—a finding that offers opportunities for dialogue and perhaps even advances in public policy.

The “Right to Die” (DRAFT)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Macauley
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Pain Medication ◽  
Palliative Sedation ◽  
Patient Rights ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Active Euthanasia ◽  
Passive Euthanasia ◽  
Life Sustaining Treatment ◽  
The Right

Formerly referred to as “passive euthanasia,” forgoing life-sustaining medical treatment came to be accepted in the 1970s based on a patient’s right to privacy. In order to achieve this societal shift, the practice was clearly distinguished from active euthanasia, which was universally rejected. Over the ensuing decades, other permutations of “the right to die”—including receiving intensive pain medication at the end of life and palliative sedation—were considered and accepted to varying degrees. Modern advocates of euthanasia now argue that it is not, in fact, so different from forgoing life-sustaining medical treatment, which endangers the critical consensus that lies at the heart of the patient rights movement. Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking is also discussed, as well as the ethical equivalence of withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining treatment.

Death with “dignity”: The wedge that divides the disability rights movement from the right to die movement

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Susan M. Behuniak
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Death With Dignity ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Right

Much of the American debate over physician assisted death (PAD) is framed as an ideological split between conservatives and liberals, pro life and pro choice advocates, and those who emphasize morality versus personal autonomy. Less examined, but no less relevant, is a split within the ranks of progressives—one that divides those supporting a right to die in the name of human rights from disability rights activists who invoke human rights to vehemently oppose euthanasia. This paper reviews how “dignity” serves both as a divisive wedge in this debate but also as a value that can span the divide between groups and open the way to productive discourse. Supporters of legalized euthanasia use “dignity” to express their position that some deaths might indeed be accelerated. At the same time, opponents adopt the concept to argue that physician assisted suicide stigmatizes life with a disability. To bridge this divide, the worldviews of two groups, Compassion &amp; Choices and Not Dead Yet, are studied. The analysis concludes that the two organizations are more parallel than contrary—a finding that offers opportunities for dialogue and perhaps even advances in public policy.

Euthanasia, Assisted Death, Abortion, and the Right to Die

2018 ◽  
pp. 282-318
Author(s):  
Robert Kastenbaum ◽  
Christopher M. Moreman
Keyword(s):  
Right To Die ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
The Right

scholarly journals Broadcasting Policy Advice 1986-88: a Critical Evaluation of New Zealand's Broadcasting Policy Framework

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Robert Hay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Broadcasting Policy ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Right

<p>In August 1988, the Labour Government announced its policy to deregulate the broadcasting industry. The policy was comprised two of major initiatives; 1. Commercialising the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand, and 2. Creating property rights out of the right to broadcast and establishing a market mechanism to allocate these. The policy was based on an economic analysis of "the Economics of Broadcasting and Government Intervention" presented to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting and Related Telecommunications in a submission devised and presented independently of any political authority or mandate by the New Zealand Treasury. This thesis is presented as a piece of "public" policy analysis, in the sense that it seeks to explain, to a non-expert audience, the strengths, weaknesses and ethical implications of Treasury's analysis as well as the outcomes or effects that deregulation has had for New Zealand society. In doing this, it seeks also to explain to the community of policy analysts and advisors - using, as much as possible, the language of modern public administration and economics - the limitations of applying 'orthodox' economic theory to the role the media plays in mediating the relationship among audiences, the state, the market and society.</p>

scholarly journals Broadcasting Policy Advice 1986-88: a Critical Evaluation of New Zealand's Broadcasting Policy Framework

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Robert Hay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Broadcasting Policy ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Right

<p>In August 1988, the Labour Government announced its policy to deregulate the broadcasting industry. The policy was comprised two of major initiatives; 1. Commercialising the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand, and 2. Creating property rights out of the right to broadcast and establishing a market mechanism to allocate these. The policy was based on an economic analysis of "the Economics of Broadcasting and Government Intervention" presented to the Royal Commission on Broadcasting and Related Telecommunications in a submission devised and presented independently of any political authority or mandate by the New Zealand Treasury. This thesis is presented as a piece of "public" policy analysis, in the sense that it seeks to explain, to a non-expert audience, the strengths, weaknesses and ethical implications of Treasury's analysis as well as the outcomes or effects that deregulation has had for New Zealand society. In doing this, it seeks also to explain to the community of policy analysts and advisors - using, as much as possible, the language of modern public administration and economics - the limitations of applying 'orthodox' economic theory to the role the media plays in mediating the relationship among audiences, the state, the market and society.</p>

scholarly journals Potentiating Death and Governing Uncertain Futures: Guns, Assisted Dying and the Production of Sovereign Subjects

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 394-405
Author(s):  
Bradley Dunseith ◽  
Ari Gandsman
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Good For ◽  
Similar Kind

Both gun rights advocates and right-to-die activists shape their moral selves through time in relation to a demand of personal autonomy. Practising autonomy – having a sense of control over one’s own life and death – becomes the principle of the good for both gun advocates and right-to-die activists. Though the ethical aims of both groups could not be more different, both movements produce a similar kind of subject. Whether through guns or end-of-life technologies, the person who has control over death has control over life, resulting in a subject actively working in and through time. However, while right-to-die activists take their own lives into their sovereign hands, gun owners engage with an ethics of time to prove their capacity in deciding who may live and who must die.

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