Northwestern visiting scholar Jason Hannan presented the history of the modern euthanasia movement to about 30 people Friday at the Buffet Center for International and Comparative Studies.
Hannan, who is a visiting scholar in the Program in Rhetoric and Public Culture, said assisted suicide can allow one’s death to become a meaningful event in his presentation “The Right to Die: Anatomy of a Moral Conflict.”
Although Hannan’s previous studies are not on the topic of the euthanasia controversy, the recent rise in “suicide tourism” in countries such as Switzerland sparked his interest.
“It sounds ridiculous, but you can go to Dignitas (a company in Switzerland that offers euthanasia) for assisted suicide for $6,000,” Hannan said.
He outlined the development of the idea of euthanasia as a consequence of the 19th century “medicalization” of dying, when physicians began to replace priests at the deathbed.
Before the 19th century, “manuals offered instructions for the dying and for their family,” Hannan said. “They told you what prayers to recite and what rituals to perform. They instructed priests on ministering to the dying and caring for their souls.”
After the “medicalization” of death, it was then the physician’s job to care for and comfort the dying but with the consciousness that death was inevitable, he said. This gave rise to the modern role of euthanasia: to eliminate as much pain as possible by any means necessary. Hannan said that the topic is approached from legal, ethical and medical perspectives, but he also wants to understand the development of a new attitude towards death, that it can be a choice separate from medical issues.
Weinberg junior Vicki Sunday, who attended the lecture, has long been interested in the topic of assisted suicide because she is from Oregon, where the Death with Dignity Act was passed in 1997, sparking controversy.
“I had never considered the medieval and religious historical ties,” Sun said.
Today, however, the question of euthanasia is no longer a medical issue, Hannan said.
“Euthanasia is a desire for a meaningful end to one’s life as opposed to just waiting around to die,” Hannan said.
Weinberg junior Zach Joachim, who is currently enrolled in Bioethics and Biology of Aging classes, attended the lecture because of his classes and voluntary hospice care. Joachim said the controversy is a complicated issue but he was persuaded by the talk that “death can be an aesthetic choice.”
“I’ve been ambivalent on this topic because we’re easing death. Death has become advocatable, so I’m struggling,” Joachim said. “You want to have some sort of control; you want your death to be something that is meaningful.”
Political science graduate student Andy Hofmann, who attended the lecture, said his grandmother’s death influenced his opinion on the topic.
“There was that period for a couple months when it was clear she was going to die, and she voiced that wish to die,” Hofmann said. “In such a medical situation, people should be able to die.”
