suffering

All the beauty and the bloodshed

All the beauty and the bloodshed (2022) is a biographical film (biopic) about the photographer and activist Nan Goldin (US). In this film, the politically engaged director Laura Poitras shows the multilayered, traumatic, activistic and famous life of Goldin, now 69. The adage ‘The personal is the political’ characterizes both Poitras and Goldin, neither of whom ever hesitates to show the raw reality of existence as it is. Continue reading All the beauty and the bloodshed

Why has the ethics of care become an issue of global concern?

The issue of “comfort women” of Japanese Imperial troops invited us to rethink of how to repair the past war-crime and how to respond to survivors’ claims to seek justice. The article by Yayo Okano argues that the ethics of care and care theories have at least three advantages to answer the questions because it focuses responsively on structural violence, proposes a new idea of relational selves, and takes the social connection model to justice. Continue reading Why has the ethics of care become an issue of global concern?

Nine misunderstandings regarding ‘completed life’

In 2017, a member of the Dutch House of Representatives – Ms Pia Dijkstra – published a legislative proposal under the right of initiative. The proposed act carries the name ‘Wet toetsing levenseindebegeleiding van ouderen op verzoek’ (‘Termination of Life on Request by the Elderly [Review Procedures] Act), and is popularly referred to as the ‘completed life act’. Continue reading Nine misunderstandings regarding ‘completed life’

Elderly people, ‘completed lives’, and ‘assisted dying’

The back cover text of Els van Wijngaarden’s dissertation Ready to give up on life goes as follows. Older people who consider their lives to be ‘completed’, who suffer from the prospect of having to live on and therefore prefer a self-chosen death: it’s not a new issue. What is relatively new, though, is the current Dutch debate about whether we should legalize, facilitate and institutionalize assisted dying in such cases. Continue reading Elderly people, ‘completed lives’, and ‘assisted dying’