sábado, 28 de marzo de 2015

BioEdge: the latest news and articles about bioethics

BioEdge: the latest news and articles about bioethics

Bioedge



Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge













Does anyone else feel that that they are being suckered by the Brittany Maynard videos produced by the assisted suicide group Compassion & Choices? Brittany, you must remember, is the 29-yar-old woman who chose assisted suicide in Oregon last year, rather than suffer a slow decline because of a brain tumour.
She made two videos which went viral on YouTube – no wonder, as they were directed by a New York public relations firm which put together a multi-platform media campaign called Twenty Nine Years for C&C. A professional story-telling consultant was employed to create the video. The celebrity magazines, the glossy women’s magazines and the major newspapers were provided with photos and interviews. Brittany was interviewed on national television. C&C has a lot riding on her story.
This week, Brittany spoke from the grave to California legislators in video testimony about a bill to legalise assisted suicide. While it lacks the professional gloss of the first two, it is poignant and direct – just the thing for fence-sitting legislators.
But I found it a little bit creepy: the poor woman was being ventriloquized by C&C and exploited as a pin-up girl for assisted suicide. Her words add nothing to the debate except the tragedy of premature death.
Let’s be honest. Isn’t this a bit sexist and ageist? If Brittany were 59 instead of 29, would she have become a YouTube sensation? I think not. In fact, Maggie Karner, a Connecticut woman, has exactly the same disease and has no intention of asking for assisted suicide. Take a look at her video. It makes a lot more sense than Brittany’s. 




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This week in BioEdge
 









by Xavier Symons | Mar 28, 2015
Following the recent Germanwings plane crash there have been calls to introduce intrusive psychological examinations for pilots.









by Michael Cook | Mar 29, 2015
Compassion & Choices has scored another public relations coup









by Michael Cook | Mar 29, 2015
Fourteen European nations have signed the first international treaty on organ trafficking.









by Michael Cook | Mar 29, 2015
Another dispatch from the Wild West of assisted reproductive technology.









by Xavier Symons | Mar 28, 2015
The international sperm bank industry is growing at a remarkable rate, analysts report.









by Xavier Symons | Mar 28, 2015
Iran's parliament is considering imposing major restrictions on the availability of birth control.









by Xavier Symons | Mar 28, 2015
A British sociologist thinks that state-run eugenics programs may be acceptable in the future.









by Michael Cook | Mar 27, 2015
Four reasons why it would be a serious mistake.
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