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'TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE': ON THE LOSS OF INTEGRITY AS A KIND OF SUFFERING.
- Source :
-
Bioethics . Jan2012, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p1-7. 7p. - Publication Year :
- 2012
-
Abstract
- ABSTRACT One of the requirements in the Dutch regulation for euthanasia and assisted suicide is that the doctor must be satisfied 'that the patient's suffering is unbearable, and that there is no prospect of improvement.' In the notorious Chabot case, a psychiatrist assisted a 50 year old woman in suicide, although she did not suffer from any somatic disease, nor strictly speaking from any psychiatric condition. In Seduced by Death, Herbert Hendin concluded that apparently the Dutch regulation now allows physicians to assist anyone in suicide simply because he or she is unhappy. In this paper, I reject Hendin's conclusion and in particular his description of Mrs Boomsma as someone who was 'simply unhappy.' After a detailed narration of her lifestory, I turn to the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt's account of volitional incapacity and love for a more accurate characterization of her suffering. Having been through what she had, she could only go on living as another person than the one she had been when she was a happy mother. That would have violated her integrity, and that she could not bring herself to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *ASSISTED suicide laws
*ASSISTED suicide & ethics
*EUTHANASIA laws
*EUTHANASIA & ethics
*SUFFERING
*ASSISTED suicide
*DECISION making
*DOMESTIC violence
*LOSS (Psychology)
*LOVE
*MEDICAL ethics
*MOTHERHOOD
*PARENT-child relationships
*LEGAL status of patients
*PSYCHIATRISTS
*QUALITY of life
*SUICIDAL behavior
*VALUES (Ethics)
*COMPLICATED grief
*ETHICS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 02699702
- Volume :
- 26
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Bioethics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 69662930
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01801.x