A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America

by Ian Dowbiggin

Overview

While it may seem that debates over euthanasia began with Jack Kervorkian, the practice of mercy killing extends back to Ancient Greece and beyond. In America, the debate has raged for well over a century.
Now, in A Merciful End, Ian Dowbiggin offers the first full-scale historical account of one of the most controversial reform movements in America. Drawing on unprecedented access to the archives of the Euthanasia Society of America, interviews with important figures in the movement today, and flashpoint cases such as the tragic fate of Karen Ann Quinlan, Dowbiggin tells the dramatic story of the men and women who struggled throughout the twentieth century to change the nation's attitude--and its laws--regarding mercy killing. In tracing the history of the euthanasia movement, he documents its intersection with other progressive social causes: women's suffrage, birth control, abortion rights, as well as its uneasy pre-WWII alliance with eugenics. Such links brought euthanasia activists into fierce conflict with Judeo-Christian institutions who worried that "the right to die" might become a "duty to die." Indeed, Dowbiggin argues that by joining a sometimes overzealous quest to maximize human freedom with a desire to "improve" society, the euthanasia movement has been dogged by the fear that mercy killing could be extended to persons with disabilities, handicapped newborns, unconscious geriatric patients, lifelong criminals, and even the poor. Justified or not, such fears have stalled the movement, as more and more Americans now prefer better end-of-life care than wholesale changes in euthanasia laws.
For anyone trying to decide whether euthanasia offers a humane alternative to prolonged suffering or violates the "sanctity of life," A Merciful End provides fascinating and much-needed historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198035152
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/09/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	751 KB

About the Author

Ian Dowbiggin is Professor of History at the University of Prince Edward Island.

University of Prince Edward Island

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Origins

2. Breathrough, 1920-1940

3. Stalemate, 1940-1960

4. Riding a Great Wave, 1960-1975

5. Not That Simple, 1975-1990

6. Conclusion: The 1900's and Beyond

Editorial Reviews

Before the 20th century, "few Americans... felt that there was a need to legalize euthanasia," writes Dowbiggin, a professor of history at Canada's University of Prince Edward Island. But as the 20th century progressed, the impact of such scientific thinkers as Darwin and Spencer led to popular endorsements of various theories of eugenics that undercut religious beliefs about the sacredness of human life and promoted popular support not only for a right to die, but for the killing of the feebleminded and infirm. By 1939 "roughly 40 percent of all Americans polled said they supported legalizing government-supervised mercy-killing of the terminally ill." Dowbiggin has brought together a wealth of social history, medical knowledge and political analysis to elucidate the complex history of U.S. movements that endorsed mercy killing and the ever-shifting public sentiments that they engendered. It was the horrendous misuse of euthanasia under Nazism that shifted both the tone and the content of public discourse. Dowbiggin's clear, nuanced prose untangles the complicated interweaving of these arguments, and he is not afraid to fault the morally dubious arguments of some euthanasia partisans, who made little distinction between mercy killing and the harshest forms of eugenics. Most of Dowbiggin's arguments are illustrated through a history of the Euthanasia Society of America (founded in 1938) and chronicles its evolving positions and high profile cases such as the 1976 New Jersey Supreme Court decision to let Karen Ann Quinlin's parents remove her from a respirator. The final two chapters cover Kevorkian and AIDS-related issues, among other pivot points. Without shying away from making his own ethical judgments, Dowbiggin offers an intellectual and moral approach to a cultural flash point. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A history of the euthanasia movement in the US from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, tracing the tangle of philosophical, cultural, social, religious, and political forces that have shaped it. Dowbiggin (History/Univ. of Prince Edward Island) finds the impetus for America’s euthanasia movement in Social Darwinism and the Progressive movement, which helped to undermine traditional religious beliefs. Although a Chicago surgeon’s refusal to operate on a badly deformed baby brought national press coverage to the subject of euthanasia in 1915, it was not until 1938 that the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA) was founded and began its campaign to legalize mercy killing. Dowbiggin, who had access to the ESA’s archives, documents the long years of cultural war between the ESA, imbued with Unitarianism and Humanism, and the Roman Catholic church. Along the way, he explores the links between euthanasia and other social causes, such as birth control and abortion rights. From interviews with many of the movement’s leaders, Dowbiggin illuminates the tensions within the ESA as interest shifted from the legalization of mercy killing to the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment and as a West Coast grassroots activism challenged the leadership of a New York social-reformist elite. He shows how the euthanasia movement was affected by the rise of the women’s movement, by the dramatic increase in AIDS deaths, by media coverage of the troubling Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan cases, and by the problematic public actions of Dr. Kevorkian. He follows the adoption of living will laws across the nation and the contentious fight over legalization of assisted suicide as it unfolded inOregon, Michigan, and Maine. It’s clear from his account that public debate over the right to die is likely to continue for years to come, and the outcome is by no means certain. Well-researched and evenhanded: a valuable contribution to the literature.

Kirkus Reviews