Suicidology and the right to die

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Humanities
Department Philosophy
Creator Battin, Margaret P.
Other Author Shneidman, Edwin S.
Title Suicidology and the right to die
Date 1993
Description As suicidology reflects on the issue of the right to die, it can make no bigger mistake than by seeing suicide and suicidal behavior in short-sighted isolation, without reference to the cultural context within which it occurs. Two kinds of myopia currently afflict us in particularly constricting ways: the refusal to see issues of suicide in the context of larger issues about how we die, and the failure to notice substantial cultural differences in how we think about dying and the choices we make about dying. I think suicidology can profit considerably from examining different end-of-life practices in cultures otherwise closely related to our own, and it is for this reason that I'd like to look here at differences in end-of-life practices and their conceptual backgrounds in three otherwise rather similar countries: the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. Much of what we say about suicide and suicidal behavior in our own culture may look very different in the light of such contrasts, and much of what we do in studying and preventing suicide may be called into question in this way.
Type Text
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
First Page 377
Last Page 398
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Battin, M. P. (1993). Suicidology and the right to die. in Suicidology: Essays in Honor of Edwin S. Shneidman, ed. Jason Aronson, 377-98.
Rights Management (c)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers This material is still protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher for permission to copy, distribute or reprint.
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 9,482,185 bytes
Identifier ir-main,14856
ARK ark:/87278/s6s18m1x
Setname ir_uspace
ID 706154
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6s18m1x
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