Recent historical perspectives regarding medical euthanasia and physician assisted suicide

British Medical Bulletin

Volumn 52, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 386-393

  Pappas, Demetra M ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

^b LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EUTHANASIA; HISTORY OF MEDICINE; LAW; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SOCIOLOGY; SUICIDE; TERMINAL CARE; THEOLOGY;

EID: 0029931702     PISSN: 00071420     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a011554     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. Hawkins JM. ed. The Oxford paperback dictionary. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990: p 383
2. This is nearly contemporaneous with the emergence of eugenics, a concept defined in 1883 by Francis Galton, the British scientist, with reference to a scientific and social movement whereby better breeding could be effected by manipulating heredity. Stepan NL. The hour of eugenics: race, gender and nation in Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991: pp 1-2 (citing Davenport CB. Heredity in relation to eugenics&D. New York: Henry Holt, 1911: p 1)
3. This is nearly contemporaneous with the emergence of eugenics, a concept defined in 1883 by Francis Galton, the British scientist, with reference to a scientific and social movement whereby better breeding could be effected by manipulating heredity. Stepan NL. The hour of eugenics: race, gender and nation in Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991: pp 1-2 (citing Davenport CB. Heredity in relation to eugenics&D. New York: Henry Holt, 1911: p 1)
4. New York State Task Force on Life and the Law. When death is sought: assisted suicide and euthanasia in the medical context. 1994: pp 77, 82. Since other chapters in this issue address those perspectives relating to theological history, they will not be discussed further here
5. Hoefler JM, Kamoie BE. Deathright: culture, medicine, politics and the right to die. Colorado: Westview Press, 1994: p 67 (citing Bronzino JD, Smith JD, Vincent H, Maurice L. Medical technology and society: an interdisciplinary perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990: p 9). Hoefler and Kamoie, after citing these astonishing statistics, go on to attribute subsequent reduced hospital mortality rates to Florence Nightingale's crusade against unsanitary conditions in hospitals, which was waged during the 1880s, before which they relegate hospitals to being primarily religious and charitable places for warehousing the sick and the poor.
6. Hoefler JM, Kamoie BE. Deathright: culture, medicine, politics and the right to die. Colorado: Westview Press, 1994: p 67 (citing Bronzino JD, Smith JD, Vincent H, Maurice L. Medical technology and society: an interdisciplinary perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990: p 9). Hoefler and Kamoie, after citing these astonishing statistics, go on to attribute subsequent reduced hospital mortality rates to Florence Nightingale's crusade against unsanitary conditions in hospitals, which was waged during the 1880s, before which they relegate hospitals to being primarily religious and charitable places for warehousing the sick and the poor.
7. Kuepper SL. Euthanasia in America, 1890-1960: the controversy, the movement and the law. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey at New Brunswick, 1981: p 56, n 84
8. Kearl MC. Endings: a sociology of death and dying. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989: p 406
9. Hoefler JM, Kamoie BE. op. cit. pp 46-7
10. Taylor S. Approaches to health and health care. In: Taylor S, Field D. eds. Sociology of health and health care: an introduction for nurses. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993: pp 43-4
11. Emanuel EJ. Euthanasia, historical, ethical and empiric perspectives. Arch Intern Med 1994; 154: 1890-1 (citing Editorial. Euthanasia. Lancet 1899; 1: 532
12. Emanuel EJ. Euthanasia, historical, ethical and empiric perspectives. Arch Intern Med 1994; 154: 1890-1 (citing Editorial. Euthanasia. Lancet 1899; 1: 532
13. Tsarounas A. The case against assisted suicide. Ohio N Univ L Rev 1993; 20: 793, 796 (citations omitted)
14. Barrington MR. Euthanasia: an English perspective. In: Berger AS, Berger J. eds. To die or not to die? Cross-disciplinary, cultural and legal perspectives on the right to choose death. New York: Prager, 1990: p 87
15. For a thorough discussion of these events, see Williams G. The sanctity of life and the criminal law. London: Faber & Faber, 1958: pp 293-311
16. This should be distinguished from the theological objection which is that the sanctity of life must not be violated by the taking of human life, through medical euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, or otherwise, even where there is a compassionate motivation
17. Kamisar Y. Euthanasia legislation: some non-religious objections. In: Downing AB, Smoker B. eds. Voluntary euthanasia: experts debate the right to die. London: Peter Owen, 1986: p 140
18. British Medical Association. Euthanasia. London: BMA, 1988 (citing Hanauske-Abel HM. From Nazi holocaust to nuclear holocaust: a lesson to learn? Lancet 1986; ii: 271-3)
19. British Medical Association. Euthanasia. London: BMA, 1988 (citing Hanauske-Abel HM. From Nazi holocaust to nuclear holocaust: a lesson to learn? Lancet 1986; ii: 271-3)
20. Pross C. Nazi doctors, German medicine and historical truth. In: Annas GJ, Grodin MA. The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg code: human rights in human experimentation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992: p 38 and generally at pp 32-52
21. Humphry D, Wickett A. The right to die. Understanding euthanasia. New York: Harper & Row, 1986: p 23
22. Burleigh M. Death and deliverance: euthanasia in Germany 1900-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
23. Caplan AL. ed. When medicine went mad: bioethics and the holocaust. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1992: preface p vi
24. Id.
25. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that in the USA, the first euthanasia society, the Euthanasia Society of America, was formed in 1938, but set aside its efforts to promote legislation during World War II because of reports of the Nazi practice
26. The sanctity of life and the criminal law. op. cit., p 305