The Problem with Death: Towards a Genealogy of Euthanasia
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Date
2011
DOI
Open Access Location
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Publisher
Massey University
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Abstract
A hugely contentious issue in society today is whether
individuals have the right to choose when and how to die.
The ethics, legality and morality of euthanasia have been
hotly debated in many countries around the world. However,
the phenomenon of euthanasia has not just emerged
recently, on the contrary a wide ranging and diverse network
of events have all played some part in our present
day understanding. This paper presents a genealogical
analysis, an overview of a Foucauldian ‘history of the
present’, that addresses the issue of how euthanasia has
emerged as a possible solution to terminal illness. It examines
the conditions present at particular periods of
time and a specific, but disorderly collection of incidents
that have allowed our present constructions of euthanasia
to come about. This focus recognizes the intrinsic relationship
between discourse, knowledge and power as the
construction of particular discourses of euthanasia that
may prevail in our society today, and are accepted as
‘common sense,’ provide the potential to act in certain
ways, while marginalizing alternative practices. This genealogy
challenges both the origins and functions of our
present day ‘knowledge’ regarding euthanasia and the assumptions
of self-evidence and inevitability that accompany
prevailing discourses.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Keywords
Euthanasia, Foucault, Bio-power, Autonomy, Neo-liberalism