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End of life > Unclassified
The ethical complexity of the Terry Schiavo case
Author / Source : Margaret Somerville Published on : Thematic : End of life / Unclassified Studies Temps de lecture : 6 min.
Terry Schiavo is dead. The decision about withdrawing her feeding tube turned into a political circus and ideological battleground in which, for many participants, she was the pawn and victim through whom they could score points. Her most important legacy, however, is to show the complexity of decisions about whether a feeding tube on which life depends may be withdrawn. To respond ethically to individuals and to formulate ethical public policy to govern such cases, we must identify and...
Birth, Death & Technoscience
Author / Source : Margaret Somerville Published on : Thematic : End of life / Unclassified Studies Temps de lecture : 21 min.
We humans have always formed our most important values and sought meaning in life by weaving a metaphorical fabric around the two marker events of every human life, birth and death. Our perceptions of birth, and the values traditionally attached to it, are being challenged and changed, however, by the new technoscience. The “new genetics” debate is the context in which that is occurring. There is also a companion debate about euthanasia focusing on the values that should govern death. Whi...