Culturally sanctioned suicide: Euthanasia, seppuku, and terrorist martyrdom

Body, Emotion and Violence: Palestinian Suicide Bombing/Martyrdom (1993-2005)

Palestinian suicide bombing/martyrdom speaks both to the symbolic significance of the human body and also to the connections that this form of violence has to religious and interconnected political authorities and influences. This article examines these religiously and politically inspired events using an analysis of emotion and body, placing particular emphasis on their mediation through cultu...

Euthanasia and assisted suicide: is mercy sufficient?

The right to assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Trends in euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Two new studies have investigated trends in euthanasia and assisted suicide in Belgium and the Netherlands. Marianne Snijdewind and colleagues’ study focused on practices at a Dutch clinic for people whose previous requests for euthanasia or assisted suicide have satisfi ed the legal requirements but have nonetheless been rejected. During the first year, the clinic answered 645 requests for eut...

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: ongoing controversies.

When, back in 2002, Chao et al1 reviewed the topic of euthanasia, there was a trend toward legalising it in a few countries. The Netherlands had just passed a bill in April 2001 to legalise the practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and Belgium was in the process of doing so. Before the bill, Dutch physicians had practised euthanasia and PAS under a set of guidelines agreed...