The film Worth (2020) tells the story of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund with a focus on the emotionally stunted lawyer in charge of calculating the pay out, Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton). Continue reading Worth: Sovereignty and the Irony of Caring for Legal Needs
suffering
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’
Simply good care?
Recently I wrote a letter to mrs U., member of the board of directors of a large care institute for people with mental illnesses. The reason for me to write this letter was what happened during my visit to my friend John, resident of the institute. Let me tell you what happened on this Saturday morning in July. Continue reading Simply good care?
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’
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?
Empirically grounded ethics of care
Ethics of care – with its emphasis on care instead of fairness, relationships instead of rules, conflicting responsibilities instead of competing rights, contextual and narrative thinking instead of formal and abstract thinking – originates in the empirical research of Carol Gilligan and her co-workers. Continue reading Empirically grounded ethics of care