{"id":42,"date":"2004-11-14T16:53:29","date_gmt":"2004-11-14T23:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=42"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:36:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:36:30","slug":"denial-of-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/42","title":{"rendered":"Denial of the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denial of the Soul<\/i> (1997) M. Scott Peck<\/a> <\/p>\n

My introduction to M. Scott Peck was the abridged audio version of this book, purchased when I regularly listened to books on tape at work, and preferred non-fiction to fiction. I listened to it several times, but when I chose physician assisted suicide as my topic for my legal\/ethical issues in public health class, I felt that I wanted to read the entire book, and have it as a reference, for although I do not agree with all of what he says, I felt that he made many good points that I would want to expand upon for my project.<\/p>\n

He takes an in-depth look at euthanasia, and the spiritual side to dying. <\/p>\n

I found one paragraph most interesting, solely for is seeming prediction of the two major PAS cases that went before the Supreme Court, Washington v Glucksburg and Vacco v Quill.<\/p>\n

(I)n my best case fantasy the Supreme Court issues a majority opinion holding that physician-assisted suicide is not a constitutional right for a variety of reasons, including the perfect legitimacy of the double effect, which may be used to ensure that a natural death need not be a painful one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fact that this is almost precisely what the was ruled is slightly eerie and gave a strange legitimacy to everything else he said, whether I accepted it or not.<\/p>\n

Not that there was much to argue with as far as his support for palliative care goes. He fully supports terminal sedation and the upholding of the double effect as an ethical principle for that. He says that \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201c(t)he first order of business should be to establish that dying patients have a constitutional right to competent hospice care.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d Although there is not a legal right, there has been a huge shift in recent years, with the Medicare Hospice Benefit becoming more and more generous. And hospice itself becoming more common. <\/p>\n

I was less comfortable with the more spiritual aspects of the book, and found them less convincing. <\/p>\n

Like much of the research available, he states that many who request PAS and euthanasia do so not out of fear of physical pain, but because they fear emotional pain. I even like his quotation of Seneca: <\/p>\n

Throughout the whole one must continue to learn how to live and, what will amaze you even more, dear friends, throughout life one must continue to learn how to die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What bothers me may be something that is probably not an issue for the intended audience, those who have deep religious faith. My problem is that I am not certain that the best argument against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is a religious one, yet this is the primary argument that he makes in the book.<\/p>\n

But he makes many good and important points, the foremost of which is that it is futile to have a debate about PAS and euthanasia until we have provided adequate end-of-life care to everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denial of the Soul (1997) M. Scott Peck My introduction to M. Scott Peck was the abridged audio version of this book, purchased when I regularly listened to books on tape at work, and preferred non-fiction to fiction. I listened to it several times, but when I chose physician assisted suicide as my topic for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[291,7],"tags":[399,513],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paper","category-religion-philosophy","tag-ethics","tag-suicide"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-G","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/39","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":0},"title":"People of the Lie","author":"Michelle","date":"October 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"People of the Lie (1983) M. Scott Peck I'm taking Legal\/Ethical Issues in Public Health, and this is one of the books my professor has brought up several times, so I thought I'd read it. Parts of the book I like, other parts I was less sure about, and sometimes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Paper"","block_context":{"text":"Paper","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/paper"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23269,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23269","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":1},"title":"The Early Middle Ages, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"February 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Early Middle Ages, Audio Book (2004) Philip Daileader (The Great Courses) 300 - 1000 CE My brain sometimes likes to keep going long past the time I'm ready to fall asleep. 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Scott didn\u2019t get any more time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hottie Scotty and Mr Porter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hottie-Scotty-and-Mr-Porter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21774,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21774","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":3},"title":"The Lies of Locke Lamora, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"March 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lies of Locke Lamora (2009) Scott Lynch narrated by Michael Page (Gentleman Bastards) I read this in 2007, about a year after it was published. It's dark, which is one of the reasons why I never got around to reading the sequels (the primary reason being because I only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Lies of Locke Lamora","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/The-Lies-of-Locke-Lamora-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1082","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":4},"title":"Cross Bones","author":"Michelle","date":"April 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Cross Bones (2005) Kathy Reichs There's been a strange convergence of events that Cross Bones seems to have finished off. I finished reading A Short History of Myth and write my review, and then a group of friends starts discussing Easter and the events and the celebration and the meaning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Female"","block_context":{"text":"Female","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/female"},"img":{"alt_text":"cross_bones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cross_bones-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8621,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8621","url_meta":{"origin":42,"position":5},"title":"Street Magicks","author":"Michelle","date":"January 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Street Magicks (2016) edited by Paula Guran I believe it took me less than a year to finish this anthology. Hopefully this is a new trend for me. \u201cFreewheeling\u201d by Charles de Lint \u201cA Year and a Day in Old Theradane\u201d by Scott Lynch \u201cCaligo Lane\u201d by Ellen Klages \u201cSocks\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Street-Magicks.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}