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Ian Dowbiggin

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Ian Robert Dowbiggin, born 1952 (age 72–73), is an academic historian, an author and an opponent of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. He is a professor in the History department at the University of Prince Edward Island.

I am opposed to legalizing PAS because I believe that the harm outweighs the benefits of doing so from a clinical, ethical, social, and economic perspective.

Ian Dowbiggin

Books

He is the author of Inheriting Madness: Professionalization and Psychiatric Knowledge in 19th C. France (1991), Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada, 1880-1940 (1997), Suspicious Minds: The Triumph of Paranoia in Everyday Life (1999) and most recently, A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America, (2003).

Euthanasia

Dowbiggin believes the Dutch experience of euthanasia offers a “cautionary lesson” for Canada, showing that countries that begin to take a permissive attitude to assisted suicide keep pushing the boundaries. He is opposed to the legalisation of physician-assisted suicide and lethal injection.

Dowbiggin has argued that with the overthrow of the theories of Marx and Freud, Darwinism may be next, and he has linked Darwinism to the euthanasia movement.

Despite studies debunking the slippery slope argument, Dowbiggin believes the Dutch experience of euthanasia offers a “cautionary lesson” for Canada, showing that countries that begin to take a permissive attitude to assisted suicide keep pushing the boundaries. He is opposed to legalisation of any form of euthanasia.

He has given speeches at Canadian pro-life movement conferences and gave a speech at the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition symposium.

A critic of Charles Darwin, he has asked if Darwinism needs to be replaced with something else, and has linked Darwinism to the euthanasia movement, describing the movement as utilitarian, anticlerical, and pervasively Darwinian.

Reviewing Dowbiggin's 2003 book on euthanasia, A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America, Ezekiel Emanuel comments that Dowbiggin demonstrates "that the ideological justification for euthanasia lies not in the advanced medical technologies of the late 20th century, but in the social Darwinism, eugenics, and utilitarianism of the late 19th century".

Politics

A well known political commentator in the Canadian press, Dowbiggin has often appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio and television both at the provincial and national level. Because it is likely that some person or persons have willfully destroyed the archives of the Euthanasia Society of America, on which Dowbiggin's book A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America is based, his book will indefinitely be the authoritative source for the history of the right-to-die movement.

References

  1. "Debating euthanasia - Canada - Canoe.ca". cnews.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  2. "spiked review of books". www.spiked-online.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20. {{cite web}}: Text "Killer arguments against euthanasia" ignored (help)
  3. Dowbiggin, Ian (1993-06-05). "After Marx and Freud, is Darwin next to tumble?". pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  4. "Killing Them Kindly". www.csustan.edu. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  5. "Evolution News & Views: Weikart Responds to Avalos". www.evolutionnews.org. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  6. "Review: A Merciful End". www.historycooperative.org. Retrieved 2009-10-20. {{cite web}}: Text "The American Historical Review, 108.5" ignored (help); Text "The History Cooperative" ignored (help)
  7. Ryan, CJ. (1998). "Pulling up the runaway: the effect of new evidence on euthanasia's slippery slope". J Med Ethics. 24 (5): 341–4. PMID 9800591. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. Lewis, P. (2007). "The empirical slippery slope from voluntary to non-voluntary euthanasia". J Law Med Ethics. 35 (1): 197–210. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2007.00124.x. PMID 17341228. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  9. "Debating euthanasia - Canada - Canoe.ca". cnews.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  10. "spiked review of books". www.spiked-online.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20. {{cite web}}: Text "Killer arguments against euthanasia" ignored (help)
  11. "National Pro-Life Conference in Montreal A Rousing Success Despite Setbacks". www.lifesitenews.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  12. "Canadian National pro-Life Conference in Montreal". www.lifesitenews.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  13. "Prof Links Euthanasia, Eugenics, Sex Education, Population Control, Gay Rights and Abortion Movements". www.lifesitenews.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  14. "After Marx and Freud, is Darwin next to tumble?". pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  15. "Killing Them Kindly". www.csustan.edu. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  16. "Evolution News & Views: Weikart Responds to Avalos". www.evolutionnews.org. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  17. "Review: A Merciful End". www.historycooperative.org. Retrieved 2009-10-20. {{cite web}}: Text "The American Historical Review, 108.5" ignored (help); Text "The History Cooperative" ignored (help)
  18. "Oxford University Press: A Merciful End: Ian Dowbiggin". www.oup.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.

External links

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