Resource Tag: MORAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Few studies examine ethical issues in bereavement research and none survey the opinions of bereaved individuals who have not previously participated in bereavement research. This study examined the theoretical opinions of bereaved adults about ethical issues such as attitudes toward bereavement research, timing and methods of recruitment, and competency to consent. Participants felt positively about […]

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This article presents an imagined conversation between a metaphysicist and a person about to attempt suicide.

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In this article, the author uses a utilitarian ethical perspective to critique Lester’s (2006) assertion that each person should determine whether suicide is appropriate for him or her in relative isolation from the opinion of others. According to utilitarianism, the goodness of an action is judged by its impact not only on the individual but […]

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In Lester’s reply to Feldman & Leenaars, he asserts their commentaries are less than persuasive insofar as they are grounded in an arbitrary & potentially inappropriate advocacy of communal rather than individual values, in unproven assumptions about the constricted & illogical reasoning of suicidal persons, in an implicit equation of their acts with sins, &/or […]

See SIEC #2002-1274 for a citation to the article “It’s Over Debbie”.

A study of American Indian youth illustrated competing pressures between research & ethics. A stakeholder-research team developed 3 plans to protect participants. The first allowed participants to skip potentially upsetting interview sections, the second called for referrals &/or emergency 24-hour clinical backup for participants flagged for abuse or suicidality, & the third included giving participants […]

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The author examines an argument against the claim some suicides may be morally legitimate. This argument appeals to a putative moral principle that it is never licit to assault an innocent human life. Related arguments in St. Augustine & St. Thomas are considered. Two possible senses of “innocent” are then explored. Mavrodes argues that in […]

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Although the change in law regarding physician-assisted suicide is both dramatic & recent, the basic arguments for & against this practice have not really changed since the issue was debated by Williams & Kamisar nearly 50 years ago. In this paper, the author argues in favour of Kamisar’s consequentialist framework. Any change in law & […]

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Between 1870-1920, the suicides of 13 British Columbian women, identified as prostitutes, provoked a response out of all proportion to their numbers. This essay examines this response, focusing first on the narratives created by witnesses at the inquests & then on the interpretations of those who did not literally know the dead women. It is […]