| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Explaining the emergence of euthanasia law in the Netherlands
— how the sociology of law can help the sociology of bioethics | | Author(s) | Heleen Weyers |
| Journal title | Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 28, no 6, September 2006 |
| Pages | pp 802-816 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com |
| Keywords | Euthanasia ; Law ; Social ethics ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | The debate over the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia is most often seen to be the result of three changes in society: individualisation, diminished taboos concerning death, and changes in the balance of power in medicine. The fact that these changes occurred in many western countries but led to legalisation in only a few makes this claim problematic. It is examined whether socio-legal propositions, with respect to the emergence of laws which focus on social control, offer a better approach to understanding the development of rules allowing and governing euthanasia. These three societal changes are discussed in the light of shifts in the social control of medical behaviour that shortens life. It is shown that the Dutch relaxation of the prohibition of euthanasia goes together with new forms of social control: doctors' self control is complemented with second-party control (by patients), professional third-party control and governmental control. The author's work calls attention to the fact that bioethics is part of larger systems of social control. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070130209 A |
| Classmark | CY: VR: TQ: 76H |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|