Cultural Issues in End of Life Care

Dr Rod MacLeod
Issue 4, August 2001

In many societies people define themselves by their religious and cultural grouping, even when their faith or immersion in religion or culture is limited. There are wide variations between people of differing faiths, ethnic backgrounds and national origins and their approach to the end of life. New Zealanders are no exception. This country is inhabited and created by people from a broad range of ethnic and cultural origins. Although four fifths of the population is comprised of people from European descent this does not mean that generalizations can be made in their approaches to the end of life.

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Editorial: Opportunities at the End of Life

Michael McCabe
Issue 8, November 2002

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

--Victor Frankl (1959)

In New Zealand there has been considerable discussion recently about euthanasia, or more correctly, assisted suicide. Proponents of assisted suicide argue that it is the ultimate choice and promote it as helping the individual achieve "death with dignity". The debate has focussed around two recent events both highlighted in the media – the advent of the so-called "exit bag" and publication of a book by Lesley Martin entitled, "To Die Like a Dog."

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Living Wills

Nadja Tollemache OBE
Issue 8, November 2002

Over the last few decades there has been increasing emphasis on self-determination (also labelled individual autonomy) in regard to a person's right to choose their medical treatment.

However, some difficult problems arise in cases where rational, legally competent individuals want to make provision for what is to happen in case they should ever become incapable at a later date through unconsciousness, coma, or mental incapacity. The question is whether such a provision made now is binding at a later date on health professionals, caregivers or members of the family. Such a declaration of wishes for the future is known as an "advance directive" and may be either in the form of a "Living Will" or in the form of an enduring power of attorney for personal care.

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Ethical Decision-Making and Grief

 

Michael McCabe
Issue 8, November 2002

The word grief comes from a Latin word 'gravare' which means deep sorrow. Grief is a deep sense of loss, which is part of the human condition. For both the healthcare professional and the ordinary person, ethical decisions often need to be made in a grief-filled context.

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The Experience of Assisted Suicide in The Netherlands and in the State of Oregon in USA: What can we learn?

 

Michael McCabe
Issue 9, April 2003

On April 9, 2003, the New Zealand Parliament was due to debate Peter Brown's Private Member's Bill entitled "Death with Dignity." The bill's stated purpose is: to "allow persons who are terminally and/or incurably ill the opportunity of requesting assistance from a medically qualified person to end their lives in a humane and dignified way and to provide for that to occur after medical confirmation, a psychiatric assessment, counselling, and personal reflection."

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Editorial : Faith and Reason - Reflections on a debate...

 

Michael McCabe
Issue 10, August 2003

In July 2003 the New Zealand Parliament voted 60 to 57 against a Private Member's Bill, "The Death with Dignity Bill" that sought to legalise euthanasia, or more correctly, physician-assisted suicide. The seemingly close vote contained a number of Parliamentary members who, while against the Bill, wished it to go to a Select committee to allow further public debate.

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International Colloquium: Globalization and the Culture of Life : Care of the Frail Elderly and the Dying

Michael McCabe
Issue 10, August 2003

July 29-August 3, 2003

Recently Father Michael McCabe, Director of The Nathaniel Centre attended the inaugural Colloquium for Catholic Bioethicists in Toronto, Canada. The Colloquium was organised by the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Centre and sponsored by the Knights of Malta. Bioethicists and moral theologians from over 20 countries considered the care of the frail elderly and the dying from the perspective of globalization.

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Gospel Perspectives for an Embodied Spirituality of Care

 

Ann-Marie Harvey rsm
Issue 11, November 2003

"Why do we need God for ethics, for the work of humanisation? Do not unbelievers do some things better?" [1]

Introduction

This address investigates issues of spirituality that arise in aged care and it invites participants at this conference to examine ways whereby people in the third age not only grow in prayerfulness, but also in resistance to social marginalisation and diminishment. [2] Just as ethics is the link between the mystical and the prophetic life of Christians, so an embodied spirituality of care offers a humanising link between an ethics of care and an ethics of justice. Three perspectives of God's word at work in the world are discussed: fullness of life in a wounded world, a gospel reflection on "The Woman with the Ointment", and a critique of ideology.

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