MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    Changing Attitudes Towards Death and Suffering: A Cultural Perspective on The Euthanasia Debate


    Tierney, Lisa (2001) Changing Attitudes Towards Death and Suffering: A Cultural Perspective on The Euthanasia Debate. Masters thesis, Pontifical University, St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

    [thumbnail of Lisa_Tierney_20140709162726.pdf]
    Preview
    Text
    Lisa_Tierney_20140709162726.pdf

    Download (2MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Why does the popular culture respond to euthanasia? We rarely find the question and never find the answer in bioethics. Dilemma ethics or quandary ethics, at the heart of the field, fail to address the root causes of the moral anarchy of our times. Despite calls from bioethicists, such as Daniel Callahan, for a communitarian bioethics1 dealing with the moral life in its societal dimension, it is still lacking. This is disappointing considering the fact that cultural biases and attitudes almost single-handedly determine the shape and direction of society. The prevailing attitudes in a culture do not merely influence the debate; they determine the issues. A revolution in attitudes towards death and suffering has taken place in our present age. It is not technology itself that has given us the euthanasia debate, but the attitudes towards death and suffering which it helped to shape. Moral debate doesn’t occur in a cultural vacuum. The key issues are best understood within the context of the cultural background from which they emerged.
    Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
    Keywords: Death; Suffering; Euthanasia;
    Academic Unit: St Patrick's College, Maynooth > Faculty of Theology
    Item ID: 5193
    Depositing User: IR eTheses
    Date Deposited: 17 Jul 2014 12:33
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5193
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Repository Staff Only (login required)

    Item control page
    Item control page

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads