The problematics of the evolution of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the United States of America in relation to the development of global human rights

• Název práce v češtině: Problematika vývoje eutanazie a asistované sebevraždy v USA ve vztahu k vývoji globálních lidských práv
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The problematics of the evolution of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the United States of America in relation to the development of global human rights
• Klíčová slova: Spojené státy americké, eutanázie, asistovaná sebevražda, legalizace, lidská autonomie, racionální volba, sebeurčení, společnost, argumenty, protiargumenty
• Klíčová slova anglicky: United States of America, euthanasia, assisted suicide, legalization, human autonomy, rational choice, self-determination, society, arguments, counterarguments
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Katedra evropských studií (23-KZS)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. PhDr. Mgr. Francis Raška, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 25.06.2021
• Datum zadání: 25.06.2021
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 19.09.2022 10:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Pekařská 16
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 08.08.2022
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 19.09.2022
• Oponenti: Mgr. Jana Sehnálková, Ph.D.

Seznam odborné literatury

1. AMA Principles of Medical Ethics: I,IV. “Chapter 5: Opinions On Caring For Patients At The End Of Life.” Last accessed April 11, 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2019-06/code-of-medical-ethics-chapter-5.pdf.

2. Archbold, Matthew. “The Curious and Tragic Case of Dr. Haiselden and the Baby Bollinger.” National Catholic Register. November 19, 2014. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-curious-and-tragic-case-of-dr-haiselden-and-the-baby-bollinger.

3. Ars, Bernard and Etienne Montero. Suffering and Dignity in the Twilight of Life. The Hague: Kugler Publications, 2004.

4. Ball, Howard. At Liberty to Die : The Battle for Death with Dignity in America. New York: New York University Press, 2012.

5. Banović, Božidar, Turanjanin Veljko, and Anđela Miloradović. “An Ethical Review of Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide.” Iran J Public Health 2, no. 46 (2017): 173. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5402774/.

6. Bransfield, Brian. Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6th ed. Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2018.

7. Brenan, Megan. “Americans' Strong Support for Euthanasia Persists.” Gallup. Last modified May 31, 2018. https://news.gallup.com/poll/235145/americans-strong-support-euthanasia-persists.aspx.

8. Callahan, Sidney. “The Moral Case Against Euthanasia.” Catholic Health Association of the United States. Last modified January-February, 1995. https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/january-february-1995/the-moral-case-against-euthanasia.

9. Cassel, Douglass. “The Globalization of Human Rights: Consciousness, Law and Reality.” Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 2, no. 1 (2004): 3. https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=njihr.

10. Coleson, Richard E. “Contemporary Religious Viewpoints on Suicide, Physician- Assisted Suicide, and Voluntary Active Euthanasia.” Duquesne Law Review 35, no. 1 (1996): 48-49. https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3086&context=dlr.

11. Collier, Roger. “Assisted death gaining acceptance in US.” Canadian Medical Association journal 189, no. 3 (2017): 123. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5366.

12. Diane E. Meier, MD, Carol-Ann Emmons, Ph.D., Sylvan Wallenstein, Ph.D., Timothy Quill, M.D., R. Sean Morrison, M.D., and, Christine K. Cassel, M.D. “A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States.” New England Journal of Medicine 338, no.17 (1998): 1193. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199804233381706.

13. Dierickx, Sigrid, Luc Deliens, Joachim Cohen, Kenneth Chambaere. “Assisted dying around the world: a status quaestionis.” The Annals of Palliative Medicine 10, no. 3 (2021): 3540,3548.

14. Doerflinger, Richard M. “Pope's Speech is About Human Dignity.” The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Last modified April 9, 2004. https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/end-of-life/euthanasia/popes-speech-is-about-human-dignity.

15. Dowbiggin, Ian. A Merciful End : The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.


16. Dowbiggin, Ian. “A Rational Coalition’: Euthanasia, Eugenics, and Birth Control in America, 1940–1970.” Journal of Policy History 14, no. 3 (2002): 234. doi:10.1353/jph.2002.0017.

17. Duggan, Mister. “In U.S., Support Up for Doctor-Assisted Suicide.” Gallup News. Last modified May 27, 2015. https://news.gallup.com/poll/183425/support-doctor-assisted-suicide.aspx.

18. End of Life Choices New York. “Medical Aid in Dying.” Last accessed May 24, 2022. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/advocacy/proposed-legislation/aid-in-dying/.

19. Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6th ed. Washington, DC: America Press, 2018.

20. García-Baquero Merino, María Teresa. “Palliative Care: Taking the Long View.” Frontiers in Pharmacology 9, no. 1140 (2018): 2. 10.3389/fphar.2018.01140.

21. Griffiths, John, Alex Bood, and Heleen Weyers. Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998.

22. Groeneveld E. Iris, Brian J. Cassel, Claudia Bausewein, Ágnes Csikós, Malgorzata Krajnik, Karen Ryan, Dagny Faksvåg Haugen, Steffen Eychmueller, Heike Gudat Keller, Simon Allan, Jeroen Hasselaar, Teresa García-Baquero Merino, Kate Swetenham, Kym Piper, Carl Johan Fürst, and Fliss EM Murtagh EM. “Funding models in palliative care: Lessons from international experience.” Palliative Medicine 31, no. 4 (2017): 46,47, 297,299, 301, 303. doi: 10.1177/0269216316689015.

23. Groenewoud, Antonie Stef, Ellen Leijten PhD., and Theodoor Adriaan Boer PhD. “The ethics of euthanasia in dementia: A qualitative content analysis of case summaries (2012–2020).” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 70, no. 6 (2022): 1704, 1705, 1706. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17707.


24. Keown, John. Euthanasia, Ethics and Public Policy : An Argument Against Legalisation, 2nd ed. University of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

25. Kroes, Peter, Maarten Franssen, and Louis Bucciarelli. Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences: Rationality in Design. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-51667-1.50005-7.

26. Kuře, Josef. Everything Under Control: How and When to Die - A Critical Analysis of the Arguments for Euthanasia. Brno: University Centre for Bioethics & Department of Medical Ethics, Masaryk University, 2011. doi: 10.5772/18271.

27. Lauger, Amy D., Matthew R. Durose. “Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Last modified October 2021. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/human-trafficking-data-collection-activities-2021#additional-details-0.

28. Lieschke, Daniela. “Euthanasia in the Netherlands, The Policy and Practice of Mercy Killing by Raphael Cohen-Almagor.” Jahrbuch Für Recht Und Ethik 14 no. (2006): 560. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43593329.

29. Marsala , S. Miles, “Approval of Euthanasia: Differences Between Cohorts and Religion.” SAGE Journals 1, no. 11 (2019): 2. doi: 10.1177/2158244019835921.

30. Montaigne, Michel De, William Carew Hazlitt, and Charles Cotton. Essays. Waiheke Island: The Floating Press, 2009.

31. Mroz, Sarah, Sigrid Dierickx, Luc Deliens, Joachim Cohen, and Kenneth Chambaere, “Assisted dying around the world: a status quaestionis.” The Annals of Palliative Medicine 10, no. 3 (2021): 3540, 3542, 3548, 3550. doi: 10.21037/apm-20-637.

32. Lipka, Michael. “California legalizes assisted suicide amid growing support for such laws.” Pew Research Center. Last modified October 5, 2015. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/05/california-legalizes-assisted-suicide-amid-growing-support-for-such-laws/.

33. Neal, Nicol, Wylie Harry L. Between the Dying the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine, and the Battle to Legalise Euthanasia. London: Vision Paperbacks, 2006.

34. Paterson, Craig. Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008.

35. Pereira, José. “Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls.” Current Oncology 18, no. 2 (2011): 38. doi:10.3747/co.v18i2.883.

36. Rizzo, Patricia L. “Religion-Based Arguments in the Public Arena: A Catholic Perspective on Euthanasia, Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington and Quill v. Vacco.” DePaul Journal of Health Care Law 1, no.2 (1996): 251. https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=jhcl.

37. Somerville, Margaret. Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2nd ed. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.

38. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “The Limits of Law.” Last modified January 29, 2022. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/.

39. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Euthanasia Statement.” Last modified September 12, 1991. https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/end-of-life/euthanasia/statement-on-euthanasia-1991.

40. Traina, Cristina L. H. “Religious Perspectives on Assisted Suicide.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 88, no. 3 (1998): 1149-1150. https://doi.org/10.2307/3491364.

41. Kini, Vinay, Bridget Mosley, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic‐Jankovic, Hillary D. Lum, Elizabeth R. Kessler, Matthew DeCamp, and Eric G. Campbell. “A novel methodology to identify and survey physicians participating in medical aid-in-dying.” Scientific Reports 12, no. 6056 (2022): 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09971-7.

42. Wilkinson, Dominic, Julian Savulescu. “Should we allow organ donation euthanasia? Alternatives for maximizing the number and quality of organs for transplantation.” Bioethics 26, no.1 (2012): 33. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01811.x.

Předběžná náplň práce

Moje diplomová práce se zabývá otázkou, jak se vyvíjí problematika eutanazie a umírání za pomoci lékaře ve Spojených státech amerických v souvislosti s vývojem lidských práv. Z dlouhodobého hlediska argumenty současné debaty o vývoji obou praktik, eutanazie a asistovaného umírání, odhalují přetrvávající kontroverzní postoj k morálnímu ospravedlnění etické disonance a ekonomické odezvy. Zásadním bodem bylo ilustrovat rozsah disociace analýzou argumentů a protiargumentů ve vztahu k otázce bilaterálního prolínání a interakce s respektováním základních lidských práv a souhrnem etiky umírání, která zohledňuje zneužívání eutanazie a lékařsky asistované sebevraždy.
Interpretace vývoje postoje americké společnosti a americké lékařské diaspory byla reflektována. V debatách o eutanazii a asistovaném umírání byla kriticky zkoumána analytická synopse vývoje tolerance v Americké společnosti v kontextu racionální volby s ohledem na ekonomické, etické a náboženské předpoklady a varianty alternativního řešení. Vzhledem k nejednoznačné povaze etické přípustnosti a legalizace eutanazie a asistované sebevraždy zůstávají debaty o morálním kodexu zdrojem zjevných kontroverzí v souladu s nejednoznačnosti aktuální problematiky.

Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

My thesis addresses the question of how the issue of euthanasia and physician-assisted dying in the United States of America has been evolving in relation to the development of human rights. Taking a long-term view, arguments of the current debate on the issue of evaluation of both practices, euthanasia and physician-assisted dying has revealed the persistent controversial stance on moral justifications of ethics dissonance and the economic response. The point is to illustrate the scope of the dissociation by analyzing arguments and counter- arguments in relation to the question of the bilateral interweaving and interaction with respect for fundamental human rights and a synopsis of the ethics of dying that take into account the abuse of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
The interpretation of the development of the attitude of American society and the American medical diaspora has been reflected. In euthanasia and physician-assisted dying debates, analytical synopsis of the development of tolerance in American society in the context of rational choice in view of the economic, ethical, and religious assumptions and the possibility of an alternative option have been critically scrutinized. Given the ambiguous nature of ethical permissibility and legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide, debates on morality remain a source of manifest controversy due to the ambiguity of the current issue.