A Desire unto Death : The Warnings of Girard and Levinas against the Sanitisation of Euthanasia

Book chapter

Zimmermann, Nigel. (2022). A Desire unto Death : The Warnings of Girard and Levinas against the Sanitisation of Euthanasia. In In Carter, David J. and Fleming, Daniel J. (Ed.). Voluntary Assisted Dying: Law? Health? Justice? pp. 137 ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/VAD.2022.07
AuthorsZimmermann, Nigel
EditorsCarter, David J. and Fleming, Daniel J.
Abstract

In this chapter I make three propositions. First, a word on the nature of facing death; second, I propose that we have much to learn from the warnings of René Girard and Emmanuel Levinas against the false promise of euthanasia; third, we may view their warnings as a lesson for us facing the particular reality of voluntary assisted dying (VAD), what can be called a ‘soft’ version of euthanasia. VAD has been a reality in the State of Victoria since 19 June 2019 and other Australian jurisdictions
are considering similar legislation. The Girard–Levinas critique of VAD issues us with a responsibility for those who suffer rather than the chilling prospect of a bureaucratic process of magnified autonomy resulting in the death of those most vulnerable to pressure and coercion.

Keywordsdeath; euthanasia; voluntary assisted dying; Rene Girard; Emmanuel Levinas; Victoria; Australia
Page range137
154
Year01 Jan 2022
Book titleVoluntary Assisted Dying: Law? Health? Justice?
PublisherANU Press
Place of publicationAustralia
Edition1
ISBN9781760465056
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.22459/VAD.2022.07
Open accessOpen access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Print02 Feb 2022
Publication process dates
Deposited01 Oct 2024
Additional information

This edition © 2022 ANU Press

This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

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